“There’s more to the proposed takeover of Yahoo! by Microsoft than a scramble for advertising dollars. There’s something in the air,” Elizabeth Woyke reports for Forbes.
“Microsoft would benefit from Yahoo!’s online capabilities, say experts. ‘Microsoft has had more success with mobile operating systems than in mobilizing its Internet properties,’ says Avi Greengart, research director of mobile devices at Current Analysis. ‘The Yahoo! Go platform would be a pretty nice fit,'” Woyke reports.
“A match-up would also send a clear message to Apple and Google. Though a small player, Apple’s revolutionary iPhone has shaken up the mobile space in less than a year. Google is Microsoft’s and Yahoo!’s chief competitor in the potentially extremely lucrative mobile search and ad space,” Woyke reports.
“Apple’s 4 million iPhones pales against the 20 million Windows Mobile licenses Microsoft says it will ship in 2008. That makes Apple a challenger more in mindshare than marketshare, says Greengart. Even so, it’s an ‘incredibly dangerous competitor,’ because of the tremendous amount of innovation it brought to market,” Woyke reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Nice try. Now for the truth. Apple has shipped over 4 million iPhones so far. Apple’s goal is to ship 10 million iPhones in 2008.* That would be half of all Windows Mobile phones that Microsoft claims will ship (including all of the so-called “smartphones” and many dumbphones inflicted with Windows Mobile today) with just one iPhone model (or two, come 3G, probably in May or June). BTW, if a phone running Windows Mobile is a “smartphone,” Apple’s iPhone is the “Einsteinphone.” Apple is already the leader in mindshare and a serious challenger in market share. Microsoft has been at this for years. Apple has only been shipping phones since last June.
Apple’s usage share of mobile devices online is a rapidly-growing 0.17% (iPhone+iPod touch) which is now nearly triple that of Microsoft’s stagnant 0.06% (stuck at 0.06% since June 2007).
*Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in his Macworld Expo 2007 keynote address that Apple would set the goal of selling 10 million iPhone units in 2008, the first full year on the market. (Macworld Expo 2007 iPhone Introduction: Jobs’ remarks on iPhone goals begin at 1:15:52 into the QuickTime video). On July 25, 2007, during Apple’s conference call discussing Q3 – 2007 financial results, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer reiterated Apple’s goal of selling 10 million iPhone units in “calendar 2008.” (Apple’s Q3 07 Apple Quarterly Results Call: Oppenheimer’s remarks on iPhone goals begin at 6:05 into the QuickTime audio stream).
