Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks
World’s one of the largest software company Microsoft is trying its best to grab a pie of India’s fastest growing smartphone market, as the company has started discussions with several Indian handset manufacturers.
Microsoft’s Windows operating system is the most popular computer operating system (though many use Apple’s Mac for productivity and Linux stays ahead with safety options), it did not make a good on the new front – mobile operating system. At the same time Google grew from search engine giant to a full fledged software company who are behind Android OS. Currently Android enjoys huge monopoly across the globe, and in India Android based smartphones tap around 90% of smartphone market share.
Worldwide Microsoft is struggling to sell Windows based handheld devices, and that’s why they are looking to regional OEMs. They are in talks with Indian OEMs like Lava and Xolo, Micromax and Karbonn. Though there are several players in this market, these trio enjoys the most sales figure.
Microsoft’s Windows based smartphones are selling quite good in India compared to other countries, thanks to Nokia’s Lumia brands. HTC, ZTE, Huawei etc also makes Windows smartphones, but these phones are shadowed by these companies Android product range. Microsoft is having its strategy to work with Indian companies with its Windows Phone 8.1 version which has several changes to be locked-horns with Android. But there are several new Mobile OS are already out, say FirefoxOS, Ubuntu Mobile, Jolla’s Sailfish etc and being free gives them advantages over Windows.