Can Microsoft's Mango Squeeze Market Share from Android? (NewsFactor)

Mango, also known as Windows Phone 7.5, is now rolling out to Windows phones around the world. The questions: Can it compete with Android? How will it affect the mobile market?

Al Hilwa, a program director in IDC's Applications Development Software practice, said two key ingredients to success are a strong developer ecosystem and a strong device ecosystem.

"To the extent these reach certain critical mass, they are posed to do well. I have no doubt that Microsoft has the developer side in order. We are now watching how good the devices are," Hilwa said.

"iOS and Android are formidable competitors with two divergent business strategies. Microsoft hopes to carve a space in the middle with a much less fragmented platform that still offers significant device choice compared to iOS. It will take time, but from what I am seeing the software is in the right place to make inroads."

A Major Upgrade

Mango is the first major release since the made-over mobile OS launched less than a year ago.

Windows 7.5 offers hundreds of new features, including multitasking, more integrated apps, mobile web browsing and personalization tools like social networking and conversation threads.

Windows Phone also integrates Microsoft products like Bing, Office, Xbox Live, Internet Explorer and Windows Live. Windows Phone has roughly 30,000 apps in its marketplace, including 90 percent of the most popular titles available on leading competing platforms.

"We looked around and saw that smartphones were largely becoming application launchers, and consumers were left to navigate a sea of icons and a grid of apps," said Andy Lees, president of Microsoft's Windows Phone Division. "We looked to build all the core things that consumers want to do directly into the phone, and focus it all around people -- not icons."

The Windows 8 Connection

As Hilwa sees it, the number of new features and capabilities compared with the devices that came out barely a year ago is stunning. He said Windows Phone developers and those from other phone operating systems like Symbian will feel like kids in a candy store with this release.

"Being able to showcase data and numbers in a home screen tile with the prominence that the Metro interface has, has to be exciting," Hilwa said. "Other capabilities like taking advantage of XNA and Silverlight in one app, or finally being able to write augmented-reality apps thanks to the camera APIs, should also be big draws."

Hilwa is betting developers may feel jealous as they look at the multilingual Windows 8 development model. But, he added, the good news is that their skills and most of their code should move nicely and quickly to Windows 8.

"The ecosystem convergence between phone and PC will prove a huge Microsoft asset in its battle the next few years," Hilwa said. "We are now bracing to see how exciting the devices will be, especially those coming from Nokia. The T-Mobile [HTC Radar 4G] device I saw announced today is beautiful and a great start."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20110928/bs_nf/80378

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