Samsung Focusing More on Windows 7 in 2011, but will it Matter?
I’m sure you’ve all heard reports of Samsung shifting their focus to Windows Phone 7 in 2011 with a reported 63% of their mobile smartphone launches carrying the OS while only 32% will run Android. Most people would begin running around, arms in air, asking if this spells doom for Android considering one of its biggest supporters is dialing down their line-up, but I say nay.
Samsung jumped into the Android pool back when we were still itching for devices not made by HTC to come storming our way, and quickly they realized just how important Android would be to their business model. Unfortunately for them, they probably didn’t forecast Android’s growth as accurately as some of the industry’s leading research firms have and they’ve since found themselves knee-deep in comeptition from the likes of HTC, Motorola, and more. We’re not even counting the little names who’re using Android to keep their aspirations afloat.
It’s easy to see, then, that Samsung simply wants to emulate the success they had in 2009 with Windows Phone 7 going into 2011. The market there is much smaller, the operating system itself succeeds a version which – not too long ago – enjoyed great mindshare, and even with all of WP7’s inherent drawbacks (the fee that comes with licensing it, the lack of freedom Samsung has to customize it compared to Android, etc.), Windows Phone 7 will be a hot item to advertise this holiday season as folks look for “a good smartphone that isn’t the iPhone.”
And dialing down their support for Android doesn’t mean they’ll become irrelevant in that space: we fully expect them to introduce new flagship devices throughout 2011 which will build upon the already-impressive Samsung Galaxy S. They’re simply using an idea that’s prominent in football: less volume, more quality. Samsung didn’t exactly flood the Android-filled market in 2010, but they didn’t need to: they had some quite decent mid-range devices to sell to the budget-conscious consumers, a Galaxy S line for the power users, and the tablet to kick-off Android’s new “big slate”-bound future. That’s good balance, and we expect they’ll keep that up going into 2011 and beyond.
[via GigaOM]