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The current smartphone operating system market is a two horse race between the Google-owned Android platform and Apple's iOS. Together, the two operating systems make up 67% of the smartphone OS market share. The RIM Blackberry OS is the closest competitor to the mobile giants right now, controlling 20% of the market. However, market research giant IDC projects that by 2015, Windows Phone 7 will not only compete with Android, iOS, and Blackberry, but will actually outsell the latter two and become the second most popular mobile operating system.
Windows Phone 7, often abbreviated as WP7, is Microsoft's smartphone operating system that provides an innovative user interface and a feature set similar to their home computer operating system. Released in October 2010, Windows Phone 7 has received mostly positive reviews. Specifically, critics have praised the fluidity of the phone's navigation system and the incredibly responsive touchscreen controls. Minor criticisms have arisen that claim the e-mail system is not user-friendly, and some reviewers were disappointed by the lack of multi-tasking ability.
Microsoft plans to amend WP7's shortcomings by releasing an update in fall of 2011 codenamed Mango. The update is promised to bring hundreds of updates to the OS, including improved e-mail, state-of-the-art multi-tasking, universal search, and innovative phone and social media integration. Microsoft also unveiled plans to introduce to the platform an HTML5-friendly Internet Explorer 9 along with Bing Vision, a feature that will allow users to take pictures of products with their phone's camera and receive info about them online.
The fixes and added features that the Mango update promises to provide are the major reasons for IDC's speculation that the sudden growth in Windows Phone 7. Some analysts have raised their eyebrows and doubt that an operating system which currently holds only 9% of the market will be able to increase in popularity and overtake mobile titan Apple so quickly. However, WP7 is swiftly growing and boasts more applications in its mobile marketplace than the Android platform did at the same age. Remember, skeptics also doubted the iPhone's ability to compete in the mobile market upon its initial release.
The new features Windows Phone 7 promises combined with its already spectacular and responsive user interface will undoubtedly sway some smartphone users into switching operating systems. Whether or not WP7 actually overtakes iOS and becomes Android's biggest competitor in the coming years, both Apple and Google should be worried that Microsoft is going to swoop in and seize at least a portion of their customers. The release of the Mango update could mean the smartphone OS market shifting from a two horse race to a three company showdown.
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