Windows Phone 7: Microsoft joins Pakistan’s smartphone war

Mobilink offers phone with hopes of enticing customers to switch.

KARACHI: The first Windows Phone 7 operating system based smartphone has officially arrived in Pakistan. Mobilink, the sole distributor of the smartphone and Microsoft, maker of the operating system, believe this will put a dent in iPhone’s solid but unofficial base in the country, along with hitting the Android – successfully launched earlier in the year.

Mobilink may be trying to entice more and more customers away from other mobile operators by tempting them with newer technology, experts say.

Omar Manzoor, the company’s spokesperson, was confident about the launch and says that Mobilink believes the market is diversified enough to make place for this offering. Commenting on the competition, he said that iPhones and Android users had their own niches in the market and so would the Microsoft’s operating system.

Pakistan, one of the most populous countries in the world, has a huge mobile phone industry with a mobile penetration rate of more than 60 per cent – meaning there is more than one phone for every two people.

And it seems the mobile phone industry is slowly migrating towards smartphones as a whole, evident by efforts of Nokia, RIM, Google and Samsung which increasingly target this developing market for a piece of the action.

Microsoft will probably not be involved in the actual sales or offering of the phone in the country, according to a company official. Hence, it is likely that Mobilink will be the only company offering the phone – at least in the near future.

It is also interesting to note that Mobilink, the largest mobile operator in the country, has consistently managed to be the operator that takes a chance with new technology. It was the first local operator to officially introduce the BlackBerry and the Android.

The phone comes with a SIM lock, which means it is only functional when operated with a Mobilink SIM card. However, observers are unsure if this will help the telecom giant increase market share in a country where SIM-locking is generally an alien concept.

As has been witnessed in the case of iPhone, unlocking a phone does not take much effort for the experienced techie.

The operating system

Microsoft has taken a different approach with this operating system since it is aimed at retail costumers rather than the enterprise market, say analysts and industry officials. Microsoft is capitalising on the global mobile phone base built by Android and is trying to get the same companies who are currently marketing Android phones to also market phones with its operating system installed.

Some of the notable tech giants that have already released Microsoft-powered phones are Taiwanese HTC, Korean Samsung, Texas-based Dell and many more are expected to follow suit.

The global situation

The phone did not take very long to come to Pakistan since it was first launched towards the end of October. Global sales, however, have remained lower than what Microsoft expected.

The operating system may not boast the features offered by the Android or iOS (Apple’s operating system), but it is a welcome move coming from Microsoft – whose software has never been seen as the most user-friendly by some quarters.

In Pakistan though, many are impressed by what the company has been able to accomplish with the phone and an official in Microsoft’s Pakistan liaison office says: “It simply does more in less time.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2010.