14 DAY TRIAL // iPhone is virtually slaughtering Windows Mobile powered devices in terms of market performance. In yet another aspect of the multifaceted Microsoft vs. Apple face-off, the Cupertino-based hardware company has left the Redmond giant in the dust. On the U.S. Market, the iPhone has been nothing short of a smashing success just a few weeks short of the first six months since it was introduced. Earlier in 2007, Apple chose to sacrifice Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on the altar of the iPhone. Apple talked at that time of necessary tradeoffs, and it looks like their gambit payed off. The iPhone is swallowing market shares at a rapid pace and is consistently growing its audience.
According to statistics made available for the U.S. by Canalys via RoughlyDrafted, in just the first quarter since it hit the shelves, the iPhone has left in the dust the whole lineup of smartphones powered by Windows Mobile. The data put together by Canalys and made available by Symbian paints a bleak picture for Microsoft and Windows Mobile. In the race for an ever increasing audience, the Redmond company and its hardware partners providing the mobile devices for Windows Mobile are losing ground to Apple. In this context, the Cupertino-based hardware company provides further proof of the benefits of a closed development model. In contrast, Microsoft deals only with the Windows Mobile operating system, leaving the underlying hardware infrastructure to third-parties.
Having been introduced at the end of June 2007, exclusively to the U.S. market at that time, the iPhone managed to take over in a single quarter, no less than 27% of the 2007 Q3 sales. At the same time, the various Windows Mobile-powered devices available from multiple operators only grabbed a total of 25%. By early September, Apple was in fact celebrating the shipping of the one millionth iPhone. Hitting the 1 million sold iPhones was an important milestone for the Cupertion-based company, as it did so while going against household names featuring software products, such as Windows Mobile, Symbian and Linux. But at the same time, the U.S. market is the exception that confirms the rule. The rest of the world is dominated by Symbian, and outside of North America, Apple's brand is worth a lot less.