Windows Mobile phones have 10% marketshare in China in H1 2008

The Chinese smartphone market is booming, with 32% YoY growth in the first 6 months of 2008, compared with the same period in 2007, says CCID Consulting. Windows Mobile is there riding the wave, with 1.5 million smartphones sold in H1 2008. The main beneficiaries are Dopod, a wholly owned subsidiary of HTC, with around half of the Windows Mobile marketshare, and Amoi, less well known in the west, with the other half.

Of course Windows Mobile still has a very small share of the smartphone market in China, with Nokia’s Symbian having the lion share of the market at around 70% of 15 million devices. Motorola’s Ming Linux phone is responsible for another 15% marketshare, while Windows Mobile devices have only 10% of the market. Of note is that Motorola’s introducing the Ming design to America with the Motorola Atilla, and with the Linux OS being unable to support 3G, one can speculate whether the design will make its way back to Asia also running the more capable Windows Mobile OS.

While Windows Mobile clearly faces an uphill battle in China, it does have a significant presence in the area, and Microsoft is pouring significant resources into it, such as supporting China’s proprietary 3G technology. There is evidence this commitment is indeed paying off, as Microsoft shipped 2 million Windows Mobile licenses in China for the whole year 2007, and have already done 1.5 million in only 6 months in 2008. And of course Windows Mobile is doing significantly better than some of its rivals in the area.

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