Apple has boosted its iPhone through a thriving ecosystem of third-party software applications. Microsoft, which used a similar strategy to help make Windows the dominant PC operating system, is now playing catch-up on phones and preparing to launch its own mobile software store.
The long-term outcome will help determine Microsoft’s fate in the booming global market for smartphones, which analysts expect to nearly double by 2012, exceeding 300 million units.
One litmus test will be whether Microsoft can win back one of its own.
In his past job as a Microsoft product manager, Kevin Lisota spent much of his time persuading software developers to write programs for the company’s Windows Mobile operating system. So he didn’t take lightly his recent decision to switch from a Windows Mobile device to an iPhone.
Ironically, Apple’s phone offered an application that he just couldn’t do without. Lisota, founder of Seattle-based online real estate brokerage Findwell, found himself at a disadvantage without access to real estate information through the iPhone application from Seattle’s Zillow.com.
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