Wow, The Smartphone Market Is Surprising
Take a look at this chart from Symbian showing the worldwide smartphone market:
Now, like any smart company, they’ve probably massaged the numbers to make them look as positive as possible, but I’m a bit shocked at how different the U.S. market is from the rest of the world. Two things to take away from it:
- Now I understand why I know nothing about the Symbian operating system: Nobody has it!
- I wouldn’t be surprised if other markets have very different definitions of what a smart phone is. In other countries, like Japan, it might mean a phone that can do a million different things, more of a consumer smart phone than a business one. I wonder, if we divided the smart phone market into business and consumer segments we’d see a very different chart.
Either way, we’d probably have to assume that Microsoft has a real long way to go outside the U.S. before Windows Mobile can be considered an international success. At least its doing real well here. I’m surprised a bit by the big purple block for Apple after just three months.
I think Apple’s purple love has been greatly exaggerated…it can’t be…
Comment by Albert | September 10, 2007
For those who dont know, EMEA=Europe, Middle East and Africa, PRC=People’s Republic of China and ROW=Rest of the World. Does India fall under ROW? The world’s most populous country with a large fast growing mobile market?
Comment by anonymous | September 10, 2007