Microsoft introduces mobile software with ad campaign
Microsoft Corp. introduced an updated mobile-phone operating system Tuesday with a TV and Internet ad campaign, a bid to take back the spotlight from the BlackBerry and Apple Inc.'s iPhone.
The advertising push, the company's biggest campaign focused on a phone product, will also use retail-store displays, said Microsoft Vice President Todd Peters. The new software, called Windows Mobile 6.5, lets phones handle touch controls and works with an online store for applications - mimicking a strategy used by the iPhone.
Microsoft's Windows Mobile group hasn't kept pace with the growth of the iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry, according to research firm ISuppli Corp. The new software alone may not be enough to turn things around, said Tina Teng, an analyst at El Segundo, California-based ISuppli. The latest improvements are small, so Microsoft isn't likely to gain much ground until it releases the next version, she said.
"Apple's mobile operating system really woke people up: Now people see that you can have a very simple operating system that is more user-friendly," she said. "Everyone is now comparing new devices with the iPhone, and they haven't been able to compare favorably with that."
More than 30 phones will be available this year with the new software, including models from Samsung Electronics Co., HTC Corp. and LG Electronics Inc. Microsoft announced the phones at an event Tuesday in New York.
Microsoft's software has design changes that make it easier to use, Teng said. It also includes a free service called My Phone that backs up content such as text messages and contacts to the Internet.
When the phone is locked, users can still see notifications about new e-mail or text messages, and they can open those directly from the locked screen. Apple's iPhone already has touch controls, a backup service and an applications store.
"The market is going to triple, quadruple over the next several years - now is the time for innovation," Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said at an event in Paris.
Microsoft, which has offered mobile-phone software since 2002, hasn't done much broad consumer advertising targeting phones, Peters said. As a result, many buyers didn't know which phones had Microsoft's software, he said.
"I get calls from family members saying, 'I am in X store and I am looking for one of your phones, and I can't find it,' " said Peters, who oversees marketing for the mobile business. "That was one of things they hired me to go fix."
The ads were created by Crispin, Porter & Bogusky, the agency behind Microsoft's current Windows campaign.
Microsoft's Windows Mobile has about a third the share of Symbian, the biggest mobile operating system. It may lose the No. 2 spot to BlackBerry this year, according to ISuppli.
BlackBerry's share of the market will probably widen to 18 percent this year from 14 percent, while the iPhone increases to 10 percent from 8.3 percent, ISuppli forecasts. Windows Mobile will be little changed at 15 percent.
"We and Apple are kind of neck-to-neck, and we're actually both looking up a little bit at the two other players in the market," Ballmer said.
Ballmer reiterated that Microsoft won't make its own handset and won't offer a free mobile operating system to compete with Google Inc.'s Android. Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone carrier, said Tuesday it will work with Google to develop and sell several handsets based on Android.