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Mobile handset wars: Nokia will beat Microsoft, says Ovum
A battle too far for Gates and Co?

By Ben King

Published: Wednesday 03 April 2002

Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson are still favourites to win the mobile handset war, says Ovum analyst Jessica Figueras.

In a new column on silicon.com, she argues that rumours that the mobile phone handset market will go the way of the PC are greatly exaggerated, and there remains plenty of room for diversity.

There are several reasons why the big handset makers won't necessarily roll over and be defeated by Microsoft's big push into the mobile handset market.

Says Figueras: "Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Siemens own nearly the entire market between them. These vendors are not stupid and have no desire to become box-shifters. They intend to own the big brands.

"They also intend to keep selling products which can easily be differentiated from the competition on the basis of design, functionality, look and feel, quality, style, ergonomics, personality, ease of use - all those things which PC manufacturers lost control of long ago."

However, Microsoft does have a place. It will be particularly attractive to the increasingly important corporate market, she says.

"A standard platform is much more important for this market, to simplify business application development and device management."