back to article Windows Phone will snatch biz No 2 spot from Android – analyst

Android for business is under threat from Microsoft, claims CCS Insight. The Chocolate company’s mobile OS will fall out of favour as the top alternative to Apple, says VP of Enterprise research Nick McQuire. He sees Windows Phone, or Windows 10, as overtaking Android and BlackBerry as the second most popular OS for businesses …

  1. Dan 55 Silver badge

    “As corporates buy apps and devices, there is much more value end-to-end in a Microsoft solution.”

    The versions of Office 365 for iOS and Android are better than the Windows Phone 8 version. Every phone already has Exchange ActiveSync. Is there anything else you need or more to the point can even get for phones and tablets apart from Office 365 and Exchange?

    And why would you need an end-to-end MS solution after MS has gone to all this trouble of making cloudy clients for rival phones?

    Bloody analysts.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: “As corporates buy apps and devices ...

      Who says Microsoft won't play their usual games, and start adding features that are only available on Windows Phone to push people towards their solution?

      1. WatAWorld

        Re: “As corporates buy apps and devices ...

        Who says Microsoft won't play their usual games

        Adding features only available on their own devices is hardly a uniquely Microsoft game.

        It is generally the name of the game and everyone does it, especially Apple.

        Microsoft does it less than almost any other company. And the evidence for this is that, as noted, Microsoft has made so much of its software available to run on iOS, Android and OS X.

      2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: “As corporates buy apps and devices ...

        Who says Microsoft won't play their usual games, and start adding features that are only available on Windows Phone to push people towards their solution?

        Well, in the mobile world Microsoft resembles IBM in the OS/2 days: it might make more money from selling Office on Android and IOS than it ever will on Windows Phone. At some point the shareholders might get restless enough to force them to do so.

        Where Microsoft will pick up sales is in tablets + docking stations as notebook replacements. Expect the number of "apps" to remain modest, though. It will be largely retooling internal systems for mobile and lots of cloudy, Salesforcey stuff. hm, there's a thought: Microsoft's next acquisition?

        1. big_D Silver badge

          Re: “As corporates buy apps and devices ...

          @Charlie Clark, don't forget, you won't ever see the majority of corporate Apps in the iTunes Store, Play Store or Microsoft Store. They are written for one specific company and are either side-loaded onto devices or larger companies have their own corporate store interface with their bespoke apps.

      3. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: “As corporates buy apps and devices ...

        Who says Microsoft won't play their usual games, and start adding features that are only available on Windows Phone to push people towards their solution?

        Well if their stay focused on the Enterprise market, they might just start to implement the things enterprises need: AD, private cloud/Office 365, System Center etc.. Ie. the things that were obvious years back with early versions of the WIndows phone and Windows PDA's.

    2. Ken Darling

      I doubt you have...

      Have you tried Office 365 on all devices for yourself, or are you trotting out statements you've read elsewhere?

      Bloody lazy commentards.

      [Downvote button below]

    3. jonathanb Silver badge

      Re: “As corporates buy apps and devices, there is much more value end-to-end in a Microsoft soluti

      I guess it depends what your use case is. If you just want your staff to have email and office so that they can keep in touch with people on the move, then it doesn't really matter which platform you go for.

      If you have field staff who run a line of business application on their phone to help them do their job, then that has traditionally been Windows Mobile, and probably Windows Phone is the best migration path.

    4. P. Lee
      FAIL

      Re: “...there is much more value end-to-end in a Microsoft solution.”

      MS might be the favoured solution by business, but is business going to start buying phones for employees again - that's an extra $400-900 per employee, when a laptop can be had for the lower end of that and the top end is a macbook air. I don't think they will pay for that.

      For business, the system needs to be locked down. No employee is going to pay for that. Are employees going to want to carry two smartphones?

      Analysts - far too much time reading product information flyers and too little thought about usage.

  2. Kevin Johnston

    Just a guess

    You know, one of those wild 'stab in the dark' things....but could this analysis in any way have been sponsored or supported by Microsoft?

    Odd thought I know but it does kind of suggest that Microsoft are about to beat how Apple took on the consumer market when they released the iPhone. The Windows Phone OS may be good but I would like to see how much he would stake on his claims for it.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Just a guess

      Either that, or a company chasing Microsoft's business.

  3. hplasm
    Meh

    I can smell something...

    Has somebody opened a cow?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    New day, same story

    I recall reading a few years back how WP would be the top selling phone by now.

    I know they are not guessing when they make these forecast - if they were guessing they would be right sometimes. As it is they are wrong 100% of the time.

    1. Adrian 4

      Re: New day, same story

      Next year will be The Year of Windows Phone.

  5. Generic_Web_Guy

    Chocolate company?

    Thought they were in computers or summink

    1. sabroni Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: Chocolate company?

      No, Chocolate Factory. As in "Charlie and the..."

      It's a book, if that helps.

      1. Eddy Ito

        Re: Chocolate company?

        Yes but the article does say "The Chocolate company’s mobile OS" not "Chocolate Factory's". I suppose given their naming scheme it's possible there is a higher incidence of chocolate chairs, cocoa computers and such in the joint.

        1. Oninoshiko

          Re: Chocolate company?

          Google kinda supports this nickname... i mean all their OSes are named after candies.

          1. Jes.e

            Re: Chocolate company?

            "Google kinda supports this nickname... i mean all their OSes are named after candies."

            VERY very excellent point!

            Never thought of it that way.

            ..however I suspect you meant "Android OS releases".

  6. Doug 3

    paying for clients

    in 2 years time it is possible for Microsoft to pay enough corporations to use its phone and tablet products so we start seeing them in the wild but enough to get the #2 spot? In 2 years time it's more likely that the #2 spot will be held by the iPhone so this analysts crystal ball must be coming from Microsoft Research.

  7. John70

    Windows 10

    There could be a shift towards developing mobile apps for Windows 10 when it's available since the desktop will house mobile apps in a separate window and not full screen like Windows 8.1

    1. frank ly

      Re: Windows 10

      About 15 minutes ago, I was looking for a Windows desktop background, (don't ask me why). This made me smile:

      http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2014/10/21/microsoft-windows-10-everything-is-fixed/

      1. Mikel

        Re: Windows 10

        That was glorious. Thanks.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Coffee/keyboard

        Re: Windows 10

        Oh, good lord that was funny. You owe me a new $200 keyboard, pal.

        And I'll take a new mouse while you're at it. And a nice set of speakers. Don't get me anything that says "Beats" on it, please.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Windows 10

        @frank ly, that was excellent, made my otherwise sh*t day.

        The company I work for has just rolled a *great* many windows phones. Having had it a few days I'd much prefer Android*, personally, but it does work, kinda, and it does make sense for big or medium size businesses.

        *especially if Android came without phone manufacturer's horrific bloatware and the security system was better. Although the privacy settings on the WP are pretty laughable too.

      4. busycoder99

        Re: Windows 10

        The real question is how that thing got in the air in the first place.

  8. TheWeddingPhotographer

    999

    Sorry, closing down for an update

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'll remember 'CCS Insight' and 'Nick McQuire'.

    Do they do incall, outcall, or are they street only?

  10. Paul

    Given that Microsoft seem to be slowly losing their grip on the business market - like them or not Chromebooks are hot sellers - then there would seem to be less need for an entire ecosystem based around Window Server, Windows desktops/laptops and Winphones.

    I really don't see Winphone getting a market share to meet android or iOS. I can see Blackberry disappearing entirely.

    1. ThomH

      Chromebooks accounted for 35% of US B2B laptop purchases during the first five months of 2014 per NPD. So Microsoft has been losing its grip on businesses at an unprecedented rate. If Microsoft is focussing effort on trying to segue its business computer hegemony into phone success then it might be better advised not to take so much for granted or it may end up without dominance anywhere. And, yes, I feel old just being able to type that. Things change, I guess.

    2. Fungus Bob

      Re: I can see Blackberry disappearing entirely.

      If it disappears, how ya gonna see it?

  11. Zippy's Sausage Factory

    Probably not...

    Sounds like PR puffery to me. I suspect that Android for business might take a hit from recent malware, but that ironically that level of publicity will only help. My guess is that in 2-3 years it'll be Android number 1, iOS 2, Blackberry 3. Whether Windows Phone is number 4 or not will probably depend on whether they're still bothering with it and I'm not entirely certain they won't have decided to just cut their losses and drop it altogether by then. (Incidentally, I do know a couple of companies use Windows Phone for business... they're migrating away to other platforms...)

    1. jonathanb Silver badge

      Re: Probably not...

      My guess is that it will be Android as No 1, iOS in 2nd place, and Windows Phone as a niche player for delivery drivers, field maintenance staff and so on. Blackberry won't exist.

  12. CAPS LOCK

    slow news day...

    ... so barely rewritten PR pieces. Why The Register has to publish this stuff is beyond me. No-one here is fooled by this stuff, for Dog's sake stop treating us like imbeciles!

    1. P. Lee

      Re: slow news day...

      > Why The Register has to publish this stuff is beyond me.

      Because comment pages have adverts too.

      1. CAPS LOCK

        Re: slow news day...

        Not on my computer. And probably not on yours as well.

  13. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

    BYOD?

    I thought the world was moving towards BYOD and the days of central IT dictating what phones/tablets (or even laptops) people used was in the dim and distant past?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Another Friday, another shameless WP plug

    And this one is even using the word "holistically", which makes it score quite well in the buzzword bingo. Now, with each Friday and each Friday afternoon WP post I feel less and less compelled to even refute it. Too lazy, I guess. So here's the bottom line:

    Analyst pushes opinion piece on El Reg stating for the n-th time that WP is going to be relevant at some point in the future. Analyst bases opinion on the "enterpriseness" of Microsoft which is superior to both Android and Apple because Microsoft "understands the enterprise" better. No evidence is provided, market reality says the contrary but somehow MS (using the analyst as a proxy) is hoping that someone reads the piece and goes with WP in the enterprise.

  15. Jess

    Perhaps they could convince the BBC to talk about them all the time

    and ignore everything else.

    Seems to have worked in another situation

    1. Waspy

      Re: Perhaps they could convince the BBC to talk about them all the time

      *checks the latest Rory Cellan-Jones blog*...yep, iphone mentioned very favourably, all is present and correct...

    2. Eponymous Cowherd

      Re: Perhaps they could convince the BBC to talk about them all the time

      This is what you get when you have a chief tech correspondent who knows fuck all about tech.

  16. Mikel

    What?

    Someday WP will become relevant to somebody somewhere? Shocker!

  17. Bucky O' Hare

    Thanks for the...

    ...Friday laugh!

    Have a good weekend everybody :)

  18. AlbertH
    Coffee/keyboard

    I needed a laugh!

    Bwaahahahahahahaha!!!!

    Windoze for phones is about as credible as Windows for Warships (remember that debacle?).

    When will MS learn that they're done? Office 365 is just a poor, expensive version of other, much better, free cloudy office solutions. Windoze 8 is a dog and totally unusable on the desktop. The security problems that have existed from before NT4 are STILL present.......

    MS is finished - it just hasn't stopped twitching yet!

  19. WatAWorld

    Let's face it, corporations aren't going to keep buying phones based on glitz

    Let's face it, corporations aren't going to keep buying phones based on status, snob appeal and "the unpackaging experience".

    Corporations don't buy $300 Beats Headphones when there are equivalent quality headphones available for $75 and vastly superior headphones available for $300.

    Companies want stuff that works, is cost effective and has a shallow learning curve.

    If Windows Phone or Android Phone can deliver that Apple will be sunk.

    And then as the article says, Windows Phone potentially has an additional edge in better integration with office PC equipment.

    1. Adrian 4

      Re: Let's face it, corporations aren't going to keep buying phones based on glitz

      "Companies want stuff that works, is cost effective and has a shallow learning curve."

      No, they don't. They buy things with a predictable cost, so nobody will be proved wrong. It's all about arse-covering.

      That's why Windows is common on the desktop : it's not cheaper, or better, or easier. It's what they did last time. Occasionally Microsoft bring out a Vista or a Metro and the corporates hold off for an OS generation while the total destruction of sales at Microsoft teaches a few MBAs a lesson and they bring out another version that allows them to continue to milk the cash cow.

      In the meantime, the 'other' systems keep improving for reliability and familiarity and gaining users. Soon even the terminally stupid will stop buying MS.

  20. Salts

    A Beta Test...

    OS, will be the top enterprise seller in 2016, you just never know, hang on while I get the marketing blunderbuss out, spin round three times and see what I can hit :-)

    I use Linux every day, my prediction is year of the Linux desktop will be 2016, not that it matters, what the F^%$ is a desktop today?

    1. Adrian 4

      Re: A Beta Test...

      The Year of the Linux Desktop is a joke. Not on Linux any more .. but ironically, on the haters.The linux desltop is alive and well and in constant use : just not by the great unwashed. Which is fine by me. Mass market adoption means mass market attitudes. They can stick with their McDonalds. I prefer my artisan restaurant.

  21. Captain Queeg

    Telling...

    Given Redmond's hold on the corporate desktop it genuinely surprises me that WinPhone isn't seen as gunning as number one. Apple are a mess in the enterprise and even if they make a real effort to catch up MS have all the experience in-house.

    Managing corporate deployments of IOS seems to be a nightmare, so why does so much mindset still sit there? - I'm genuinely curious.

    1. Paul Crawford Silver badge

      Re: Telling...

      I think the answer is so many people, in particular high up in the company, just don't want a Windows phone/tablet. Have you ever tried to use a typical non-tech person's home Windows PC (not an El Reg reader) that is more than a few months old? It is a horrific experience of blot, advert tool bars, shitty trial-ware AV, etc.

      So when they first used an iPad or iPhone with near instant resume, slick UI and more or less "just working" experience they liked it and wanted it for work.

      Of course a large scale corporate deployment by a good Windows admin person is easier and in most ways better than wrangling iOS, but it seems not to be what enough important folk want.

    2. Adrian 4

      Re: Telling...

      Because the hold on the corporate desktop relies entirely on inertia, where Microsoft's history of screwing up is still less dangerous than solving new problems.

      Nobody has a clue what Microsoft's phone OS is : they keep trying to shed the failures by renaming it, and the only thing that's got enough press to reach CEO level is the inappropriate windows 8. So no gain from inertia, and familiarity is the next string. That means iOS or Android.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wow, so much negativity on a pro-Microsoft article.

    The shills must be off today.

    1. dogged

      > Wow, so much negativity on a pro-Microsoft article.

      No, it looks like all the usual fandroids are right here.

      1. RyokuMas
        Stop

        Careful...

        @dogged - steady! You can have comments deleted for accusing people of being shills these days*!

        * unless they're Microsoft shills - apparently that's still ok.

  23. Roger Greenwood

    Given the speed of change in IT generally . . .

    . . predicting anything more than a year ahead surely can be nothing more than either a wild guess or a wishlist.

  24. The Godfather
    Coat

    Some crystal ball Nick Mcquire's got....I'd suggest it might be one of those that splurges white snow when shaken, obscuring the view somewhat.

  25. phands

    Really? What kind of analyst is this? Windoze will snatch #2 slot from Android? Android has #1 spot already Apple is #2, and the awful windoze phone is #3, but miles behind. Even if the dismal windoze phone gets to #2 spot, it will STILL be miles behind Android. I wouldn't pay for this guy's opinions - they're not based in fact.

  26. mrfill
    Big Brother

    Missed takeover?

    Did I miss the article about Microsoft purchasing CCS Insight?

  27. Christian Berger

    Given the fact that Windows phone is incompatible to Windows...

    ... I doubt that. Windows CE at least had the advantage that it was similar enough so you could port some applications or you could get a Visual Basic programmer (yes lots of commercial software was written in that) to write for Windows CE.

    Now moving either to Windows Phone or Android means that you'd have to completely renew your software. Your old software won't work, you need to get new one. Companies will have to buy whatever they can get their software for. It's probably much easier for software companies to find Android programmers in the price range they can afford. There's just more of them around. Plus nobody knows if Windows Phone will be a long term strategy by Microsoft or yet another flash in the pan. Android seems like something that will be here to stay, at least for the next 10 years, so it is worth a bit of investment. Nobody knows if Windows Phone will even exist in 5 years.

    Microsoft could have gotten it so easy, by just porting a stripped down version of Windows to mobile phones. They could have built a x86 emulator just like the one they had on Alpha (OK that wasn't done by them) and you could have gotten all the normal legacy Windows software to run. With that they would have gained that market in a flash. However that would have meant to acknowledge that Microsoft is mostly about legacy software.

    Some people may find it bizarre, that people who run old Unix shops can just sit back and relax. They probably already run terminal servers for over a decade, and adding a mobile device just means installing some ssh client on it. (or mosh if you want to use it over GPRS)

  28. David Gale

    Tried but failed...

    Exchange mail is currently significantly better on Android than in WP8, so there is some ground to make up.. Data retention compliance? Retrieval of entire time-stamped SMS text threads? Recording of phone calls? Good luck trying to deliver that with WP!

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