Android faces tougher battle than expected against LiMO and WinMO

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Android faces tougher battle than expected against LiMO and WinMO

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 25 September, 2009

READ MORE: Metrics | Vodafone | Android | Linux | Windows Mobile

It is easy to assume that the mobile OS battle will be a straight fight between Symbian and Android, with a role for a few proprietary systems, notably iPhone. But the picture remains complex. Android is not yet ready for prime time, say many licensees, and in the meantime there will be more Windows Mobile smartphone launches this fall than those for Symbian or the Google system. Meanwhile, LiMO has received a huge boost from Vodafone's decision to place it at the heart of its first Vodafone 360 web services push, and could leverage its operator friendliness to keep the big two out of the carrier-branded market (while that lives on).

The LiMO Foundation was not just riding on the Vodafone announcement, but has also announced operator launches of LiMO handsets by Verizon Wireless, NTT DoCoMo and Orange, for this quarter or early 2010. Verizon Wireless has a particularly interesting role to play in deciding how the future mobile device/services map will look in the US. It has talked up Android but not yet launched a phone, though it is expected to have several by year end - the still elusive Motorola 'Sholes' and a brace of HTC devices, codenamed Predator and Passion (the latter possibly a CDMA rework of the Vodafone Magic). It had also seemed keen to launch the Palm Pre (which uses yet another Linux-based OS, webOS) once the Sprint exclusive runs out, though reports this week suggest it may be rethinking that commitment. And now it has reiterated support for the LiMO Foundation, of which it was a founder member.

Verizon Wireless passed on the first release of the LiMO OS but said it will either have a phone this quarter running release 2, or (perhaps more likely), a gadget for the first quarter of 2010, using the upcoming release 3, which adds a wide range of new features such as

enhanced support for location-based services, an integrated contact list, and widgets. Verizon may well be interested in the LiMO-based Samsung H1, the launch phone for Vodafone 360, which will have a large touchscreen and HD video, plus strong social networking credentials.

According to LiMO, at least six major carriers will launch release 3 handsets from various vendors - as well as Vodafone and Verizon, Orange, SKT, Telefonica and DoCoMo. Vendors developing phones for the OS are mainly from Asia - Samsung, LG, NEC, Panasonic, Hitachi, Huawei and ZTE being the main ones. About 40 models are available running the earlier releases, and have mainly been taken up by Asian carriers plus Vodafone.

So if LiMO has received a welcome shot in the arm, what of the other supposed also-ran, WinMo? Despite the shortcomings of the new release, 6.5, and the delays to WinMo 7, more than 30 new smartphones running the OS will be launched by year end, according to Microsoft China's senior director Benjamin Tan. The fact that the news was announced to reporters in China suggests that Microsoft is on a drive to increase the standing of its platform in that country now that 3G is spreading, and it is likely to be pursuing an age-old strategy for WinMo - trying to get into operator branded handsets, especially important in east Asia.

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