INTERVIEW: Microsoft's Windows Mobile Sees High Growth Ahead

MUNICH -(Dow Jones)- With the Internet going more and more mobile, Microsoft, the world's dominant software producer, sees high growth potential in software for mobile devices, a top executive said Thursday.

Andy Lees, senior vice president of Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business, noted that 12% of the 1.2 billion mobile phones sold annually are smart phones, which allow Internet surfing and the sending and receiving e-mails. He cited an International Data Corp. survey, which estimated that 21% of the 1.4 billion mobile phones sold in 2011 will be smart phones.

"There is a very high growth potential, and we want additionally to gain market share," Lees said.

However, Lees said, Microsoft has "no plans right now" to introduce its own branded phone like competitor Apple did with the iPhone. "We want to give our customers choice," Lees said.

Currently, Microsoft's Windows Mobile software runs on 140 devices from 50 different manufacturers, Lees added, saying that this makes Windows Mobile more successful than Apple's iPhone.

Referring to IDC figures, Lees said that in the January-to-March quarter, 4.4 million smart phones with Windows Mobile were sold globally, 1.8 million more than in the corresponding quarter in the previous year, while Apple sold 1.7 million iPhones in the first quarter.

"The iPhone hype is completely disproportionate to the number of people that utilize phones that use our software," Lees said.

However, when it comes to software for mobile devices, Microsoft is No. 2 after U.K.-based Symbian Ltd. The world largest handset maker, Nokia recently said that it wants to acquire almost all shares of Symbian.

Nokia is the only handset producer among the top five of the industry that doesn't produce smart phones with Microsoft's Windows Mobile software.

"It would be great if Nokia would use Windows Mobile software," Lees said, though he declined to comment if Microsoft and Nokia were in talks about that issue.

Lees declined to give a figure on the portion Windows Mobile software generate to Microsoft's overall revenue.

-By Archibald Preuschat, Dow Jones Newswires, +49 (0) 69 29725505, archibald.preuschat@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Posted to the site on 10th July 2008