According to a report by a leading research firm named NPD Group, while Android is still the preferred choice for platform for the current and upcoming mobile manufacturers, Windows Phone 7, too, has been stirring considerable interest among the prospective buyers. It was said that among all the operating systems being used in smartphones, Android was preferred by over 63% of the consumers, which was more than any of the other platforms which were surveyed. The report also claimed that about a third of those who use BlackBerry smartphones look to Android phones as the next device that they want to buy.
NPD also notes that even as Android has accounted for more than half of the total smartphone sales during the last three quarters in a row, it is in no way certain whether its dominance will continue. The director of research for Connected Intelligence, Lisa Barrabee, said that Android has had to face tough competition from Apple’s iOS platform, used in the iPhone and iPads, and moderate competition from Microsoft’s Windows Phone mobile platform.
According to the data from NPD, from those who currently use a smartphone or are about to buy one in near future, 44% are considering the purchase of a device running Windows Phone 7. However, in spite of these encouraging figures, Microsoft will have an uphill task in transforming its latest mobile platform into a big player in the market.
The report suggested that around half of the smartphone users in the world are not even remotely familiar with the Windows Phone platform, and among the users who are about to purchase a smartphone in the upcoming six months but who are not interested in the Microsoft OS, most people were not aware of the platform. The report quoted 46% of the users as saying that they did not know enough about the OS.
Another big challenge that Microsoft will face is a market which is saturated with different mobile software and ecosystems, as around 21% of the mobile consumers who did not want to buy a Microsoft mobile device said that they had already invested in some other smartphone operating system.
Barrabee noted that the Microsoft software still had a long way to go before most users really understood what it is. He added that if Microsoft employed the right marketing techniques and application rich portfolio, the company has a decent chance of capturing market share from Android.