Microsoft Misjudge Android

It would seem that Microsoft aren’t taking seriously the entrance to the mobile OS market by Google via their Android system.

Just 18 months after the launch of the iPhone went completely over the heads of the guys at Redmond, Ballmer now reckons that Google doesn’t have a business model for Android.

Ever heard of Adsense, Steve?

“If I went to my shareholder meeting, my analyst meeting, and said, ‘Hey, we just launched a new product that has no revenue model, yeah, cheer for me’ — I’m not sure my investors would take that very well,” Ballmer said. “But that’s what Google is telling their investors about Android.”

Seemingly not.

In a week when Google launched voice activated search on the iPhone, Ballmer seems increasingly out of touch with the needs and demands of the mobile OS market.

As CEO of the biggest software supplier on the planet, Ballmer seems to be on the verge of hving to accept some sort of reality check. His dismissal of Android – already available on at least two phones including a HTC device – however is doubly surprising when he omits to refer to Apple as a competitor!

“I’m not saying they’re not going to be a factor, but we’re in a world with Symbian, we’re in a world with BlackBerry, we’re in a world with Linux Mobile,” he said. Google might be a factor someday, but right now these competitors “look a little tougher to me.” “We’ll see what happens to Google in that fight.”

In a world with Windows Mobile 6.1 giving WinMo users a more thumb-friendly interface in the war against iPhone, the Apple device eats into the Symbian/mainstream mobile device OS market and Blackberry is stylistically and culturally welded to the workplace, to dismiss an entry into the mobile market by a company as massive as Google is shortsighted and frankly incomprehensible.

If three years down the line Ballmer (assuming he hasn’t been replaced) utters similar sentiments about a new Nintendo console that is technically superior to the XBox, the console world would be up in arms.

Windows Mobile still has a huge user base, but one that is increasingly disillusioned. While Apple and Blackberry don’t offer decent mobile wordprocessing and other office applications, if either was to suddenly announce something that could be considered suitable to long suffering Windows Mobile users, then the advances made with the OS by HTC in the last 12 months would be lost.

As beautiful as the iPhone interface is, as solid as the Blackberry push-email (and let’s face it a BB is nothing more than a very ornate pager) system is (solid enough to build a brand new market) and as inspiring as the Google Android is, Steve Ballmer needs to be careful with his words.

Now is the time for Microsoft to make wholesale changes to Windows Mobile, bring it up to date and give consumers what they want.

Waiting any longer could seriously damage WinMo’s health.

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