Saul Hansell from the NyTimes posted an interesting article about Android business model. As you have heard several times now lots of OEMs are now building Android devices along side their Windows Mobile products but Microsoft keeps on insisting that Google doesn’t have any business model for Android and that even-though a Windows Mobile licenses costs around $15 it’s still cheaper for OEMs to build WinMo devices because, according to Microsoft, Windows Mobile is packed with features that Android doesn’t have so phone manufacturers have to spend more money developing UIs,media apps etc for the Android devices. here’s a quote:
Microsoft, by contrast, charges manufacturers $15 to $25 per Windows Mobile phone sold, an attempt to duplicate the rich business model of Windows for the PC. Google’s a-rising-tide-raises-our-ship approach deeply perplexes Microsoft executives.
“If you asked me to go to a venture capitalist and pitch the Android business model, I don’t think I could,” said Robert J. Bach, the president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, at a meeting with reporters earlier this month.
Microsoft’s pitch to handset makers is that Windows Mobile costs more and it’s worth it. And they suggest that since Google gets no cash from Android, it will skimp on features that Microsoft can afford to build.
“If you get Android, you get an operating system that is a version of Linux and a few tools,” Mr. Bach said. “That’s fine. But what are you going to do as your music experience? What will yo do for your photos experience?”
He argued that handset makers will need to spend more money to develop a phone using Android than for Windows Mobile.
Well has of right now with Windows Mobile 6.X, Robbie is just totally wrong. Just take a look at HTC, they’ve replaced IE Mobile with Opera Mobile, build a media application, photo album, Youtube application, bundled Google Maps cause Live Maps sucks etc…Just like they do on their Android phones. People are currently buying Android Device With the vanilla UI (and the soon to be announced Motorola Droid will sport the default UI), but would anybody buy a Windows Mobile 6.5 device that hasn’t been customized by the OEM? Nope.
So this leads me to Windows Mobile 7. With all this talk about WinMo having more value than Android one can guess that the future version of Redmond’s mobile OS will be packed with new and improved features, like having the new Bings maps (using Silverlight) on every device, Zune application for all your media, improved browser so OEM won’t have to hide IE Mobile and slap Opera Mobile (which is awesome BTW) in there. But will Microsoft let OEMs tweak the hell out of the UI like they do now or decide to take total control of it?
As the author says “Android doesn’t have to beat the iPhone, it just has to be better than Windows Mobile.”
Source: Bits
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