Phones4U Gets Windows Mobile – But With Only 60 Apps

Microsoft announced a partnership with high-street phone seller Phones4U in the UK, as part of a bid to get consumers to buy the new Windows Mobile 6.5 – but analysts are not convinced, and the launch was very short of downloadable applications.

Microsoft spokespeople in London hoped the Microsoft brand would be attractive to consumers who already love their desktop experience, and want Microsoft on three screens – the TV, the PC and the phone.

“Microsoft’s commitment to this three screen strategy is 100 percent,” Alex Reeve, director of the mobile business group for Microsoft UK. “We will deliver it using the cloud.”

Product demonstrations of new phones from HTC (the HD2) and Samsung (the Omnia II) concentrated on improvements to Windows Mobile’s touch-screen interface, and details like better Start and Lock screens, and Facebook integration (including the ability to dial from the Facebook page).

The phone also has a free cloud backup called My Phone, which automatically keeps copies of all photos and other data on the phone on a website – and appears to overlap with a paid for premium service available in Windows Live.

Although there are 250 applications in the Marketplace, only 60 can be downloaded in the UK – both numbers falling well below the 600 apps which Microsoft promised.

Microsoft’s long-term UK partner, Orange is taking the operating system, although Mark Overton, a VP of Orange had to explain its positioning alongside the newly-acquired iPhone contract: “It’s all about consumer choice,” he said.

Phones4U is probably more consumer oriented, with customers who have “gritty” lives, according to the company’s marketing man Russel Braterman: “It’s not about glamorous tech-savvy whizz kids.”

Analysts, to say the least, don’t believe a word of all the hype, maintaining their pre-launch doubts. But they do expect Microsoft to press on, and continue to fight the losing battle. “We see them still in the market but at the bottom of the league table in four year’s time,” said Gartner principal research analyst Roberta Cozza.

The user interface is still lacking, with some small icons that betray the stylus-based roots of Windows Mobile, said Cozza. Efforts by handset makers to improve the picture will only end up fragmenting the Windows Mobile market, she said – citing the very different “skins” created by Samsung and HTC – whose phones make Windows Mobile look like an Android device.

“I think consumers value very much the user interface, and this is one of the key limitations that windows Mobile has,” said Cozza, who was also surprised at how few apps the OS has. “Despite the improvements in version 6.5, it is too little and a bit too late.