Microsoft aims to pass iPhone in China with cheap Windows Phones
March 21, 2012 at 17:58 GMT | By Darlington Moyo
Microsoft and it's partners are aiming to propel Windows Phone past Apple's iPhone in the Smartphone market by releasing devices costing as little as $158.
China is poised to become the world's biggest smartphone market in 2012, making it crucial for manufacturers and sellers in the battle for sales. Shipments of the devices, used to download games and movies, will jump 52 percent to 137 million units in China this year. Simon Leung, Microsoft's chairman and chief executive officer for the Greater China region said this to reporters
We will continue to drive the price down. Our goal is number one. Having a goal to be number two is not really a goal.
Windows Phone will account for 7.5 percent of the China market this year, trailing the 12 percent share of Apple's IOS and Android's 70 percent, said Teck-Zhung Wong, a Beijing-based analyst at IDC. By next year, Windows share will rise to 15 percent, surpassing Apple's 13 percent, while still trailing Android's 66 percent, he said.
"The Windows Phone ramp-up in China won't really begin until the second quarter, so the numbers are still low," Wong said. "From next year the ramp-up will be more rapid."
By 2016, Windows Phone is forecast to have a 20 percent share in China, ahead of Apple's 16 percent and trailing Google's 60 percent, Wong said.
Read more at Bloomberg
Source: Bloomberg
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Darlington is a self-confessed smartphone junkie. Some are convinced he has a Microsoft tatoo hidden somewhere on his body. When he is not writing about Windows Phone, he is reading about it. Current device » Nokia Lumia 920. Xbox Gamertag » MthOmnia - Add me