DigiTimes reports that Microsoft wants to see Windows Mobile smart-phones on the market for under $300, to boost the company's share of the mobile-device operating system market. ODM handset makers are not optimistic about accomplishing this anytime soon.
The Register also suspects that this will be hard: "The difficulty is the inherent cost of feature-rich phones, and the need to get the sales volumes that will allow the economies of scale necessary to get the price down without sacrificing too many features. Nokia can do it, but it's questionable whether the much smaller Taiwanese firms, with far weaker brand recognition, can do so."
We're not quite sure why Microsoft really cares about the specific figures of their market share. Sure - Nokia has the lead - but the fact that Palm recently chose Windows Mobile rather than Symbian should have helped Microsoft focus a little - upon making Windows Mobile the only choice for all high-end smartphones; trying to increase volumes instead makes it seem as though they want more revenue from the product, (we wonder how much of that $300 dollars is taken up by the windows mobile operating system itself) or that they have self-esteem issues.
Maybe the revenue reason is the correct one, what with the losses from each Xbox 360 sold. They're probably regretting not selling the Xboxes on eBay - or maybe they are, which is why retail shops seem to be dry.
[via All About Symbian]
