Where in the world will you find the most smartphones? Give yourself full points if you said Asia. The Asian market represents 46 percent of the global mobile market, compared to 37 percent for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 17 percent for the Americas. More so than in Europe and North America, mobile phones have also become an important marker of one’s social status and identity in Asia.
Microsoft is well aware of this fact and has been spending quite a bit of time and effort in the region to promote its Windows Mobile operating system. It plans to open 35 Windows Mobile stores in China in 2008. In Japan, it has gone from having one Windows Mobile phone in 2005 to 12 this year.
Microsoft still expects to effectively double sales of Windows Mobile licenses from 11 million in its fiscal 2007 year to over 20 million in 2008.
Source: PocketPC Thoughts