'We outsell Blackberry worldwide, growing three times faster'

Olivier Ribet was in India recently to announce the launch of
Windows Mobile 6, the advanced avatar of Windows Mobile 5. He feels competitors
to Windows Mobile have not done much, though they had the first mover advantage.
Olivier talks passionately about technology advancements happening in the world,
and about Indian market conditions and customers. Microsoft outsells Blackberry
worldwide, growing three times faster than the RIM platform, and this
achievement gives Olivier the push for moving ahead in sales in the Asia Pacific
region. Olivier spoke to VOICE&DATA on Microsoft's ambitious plans in the
mobile world. Excerpts:

The growth of Windows Mobile has stunned the industry. What
were your main achievements? Do you have tie-ups with service providers in
India?

Out of a total of 103 mobile operators in Asia, the thirty-eight biggest are
on Windows Mobile. Additional mobile operators and device makers, including
Chungwa Telecom, LG Electronics, Motorola, Palm, Samsung, SingTel, Sprint,
StarHub, Telefónica, Toshiba, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone Group, and Willcom,
plan to ship Windows Mobile 6 devices this year. Since we are an open platform,
Windows Mobile 6 can be made available on different devices. Some of our device
partners, however, have tie-ups with some operators. For instance, Bharti Airtel
has a tie-up with HTC and i-mate for their devices.

In India too Windows Mobile has garnered tremendous market share
within one year of its launch-30.5% as per the latest report from IDC. This
time Windows Mobile has also offered consumers the industry's widest portfolio
of Smartphones and Touchscreen Phones to choose from, with close to thirty
models including seventeen Stylus/PDA Phones.

How many handset vendors do you have in India?

Currently, we have five handset makers in India-O2, HTC, i-mate, HP, and
now Motorola. Initially, we started with two device partners-HP and i-mate. In
the last seven months, we have expanded to five device partners. From these
device manufacturers, we have thirty models with the industry's widest
portfolio of form factors. We partner very actively with each device
manufacturer.

How many handset vendors are you looking at for having tie-ups
in the future?

This is an evolutionary process. Currently, we have partnerships with about
six handset manufacturers to provide thirty models for consumers. In future, we
will be looking at more models from existing as well as new players. A lot of
device makers in the country want to launch Windows Mobile enabled devices. In a
year from now, we will definitely have more number of models as well as device
partners.

In spite of the good work that you are doing, isn't the demand
for Blackberry still increasing?

We outsell Blackberry worldwide, growing three times faster than the RIM
platform. In India, the entire installed base of Blackberry has been achieved by
Windows Mobile in one year, ie, the growth of Windows Mobile is more than the
total installed base of Blackberry. Two years ago, we sold around 3 mn phones
worldwide. We are now selling 10 mn. Next year, we expect to touch 22-23 mn
units.

What is India operation's contribution to this growth?

As far as Apac is concerned, we have grown more than 125% in this financial
year, and hope to grow between 70-80% next year. We started our India operation
in 2006. In the previous fiscal, we sold 80,000 units, which amounted to a 400%
y-o-y growth. In the fiscal from July 2007—June 2008, we hope to double this
growth and touch 200,000 units.

If we have to compare ourselves with Blackberry, we are
outselling them worldwide and in India at 2:1. As far as enterprises are
concerned, we know how to provide back-end services to them through our
infrastructure. This fiscal, we had approxi-mately 300—360 big wins (more than
1,500 units) among large enterprises (Fortune 500 companies), out of which 30%
migrated from RIM to the Windows Mobile platform.

What is the USP of Windows Mobile, apart from the security
aspect?

Security is a major issue with enterprises. Windows Mobile is considered to
be the most secure platform, since it is directly synchronized with the exchange
server. Hence, there is no requirement of an additional middleware server. In
Blackberry's case, you need additional middleware server, which is at NOC
(network operation center) in Canada. As a result, the data first travels to
Canada and is then transferred to your handheld device. This affects the speed,
performance as well as security, which is not the case with Windows Mobile. This
is why France has recently banned Blackberry. They don't want diplomats
inadvertently leaking confidential information when it's exchanged using
Blackberry.

Further, to help enterprises with LOB applications, Microsoft
develops tools for customers to migrate all desktop applications to the mobile.
When we started a few years ago, people said we don't understand mobile phones
or telecom. However, we do understand the concept of mobility, which for us
means empowering people end-to-end. A complete integrated platform, which
encompasses back-end services, applications, security, and user friendliness,
should be provided to consumers.

Seamless transmission of data from phone-to-PC-to-phone is very
important, for which you do not need to put additional infrastructure in place
or build applications from scratch.

Windows Mobile 6 has SQL (Structured Query Language) CE embedded
in the phones. Most people do not use it. But, if you are a banking or logistics
company, lots of product catalogues and databases can be made available online
and offline on the mobile, and people can access it anytime, anywhere.
Applications for Windows Mobile based phones are developed on .Net compact
framework 2.0, which provides greater flexibility and compatibility with desktop
applications. The fundamental idea of the Win Mobile platform is that all
desktop applications can be easily moved on to the mobile.

Enterprises have concerns regarding mobile applications,
especially in the manufacturing and retail side. Any comment?

As far as MS windows are concerned, we have lot of MS certified partners. We
have a little more than 1,300 gold certified partners, who are focusing purely
on mobility and are developing applications for the Windows Mobile Platform
worldwide. They are also constantly making an effort to move all desktop
applications to the Windows Mobile Platform. Windows Mobile is definitely being
seen as a platform to provide end-to-end solutions, and not just an emailing
solution.

Some years ago, Blackberry was the only player to provide email
on the move. When we came to the field, we said that we know how to enhance the
performance of email. Hence, we put outlook express on the mobile and moved
information to exchange the server. If we look at our big deals in the recent
past, none of them is just for email. Sixty percent of Windows Mobile-enabled
devices are being used for sales force and field force automation, in addition
to lot of CRM and ERP applications. Enterprises want their sales guys to check
inventories, customer information, and real time, which can easily be done on a
Windows Mobile platform. We believe in the strength of an integrated platform
and that is what we have been trying to do through Windows Mobile.

Compared to the US, are we equipped? And, what is the demand in
India?

When you are an enterprise, you don't know where to start. In the last few
months, we have tried to do a better job of creating awareness. We want to
inform people that we have been making significant investments to develop
infrastructure, and are now able to provide them with end-to-end mobility
solutions. We have a strong mobility story to narrate and we are doing just
that.

As far as India is concerned, multinationals like Satyam and
Infosys are so equipped that they can teach Windows Mobile to others. They have
been doing sales force automation and field force automation for the last
fifteen years. They know how to develop on the Windows platform, but not on the
Windows Mobile platform, because we did not provide tools that now exist.
However, things have changed in the last few months. We have made significant
investments in creating tools to help them develop applications for Windows
Mobile. We have been investing in providing developer tools, migration tools,
and compatibility infrastructure to provide end-to-end platforms for developers.

Are you moving toward retail also?

The Windows Mobile platform provides a complete end-to-end mobile solution.
We do emailng, instant messaging, chatting, blogging, LOB applications etc-all
at a cost effective environment, which is because of its direct linkage with
exchange server.

For the retail segment, there are two additional pegs: all
Windows Mobile-enabled devices have multimedia features. In all our thirty
models, we have the options of music, video, and camera to enable people to work
and play. In retail, that is a huge advantage. Besides, the office applications
that we provide on our platform are also as much consumer-centric as enterprise—centric.
We offer these capabilities on our platform in the best possible way, which no
other company can do.

Baburajan K

baburajank@cybermedia.co.in