Since Google launched Android three years ago, the technology has become one of the most popular mobile-phone operating systems on the planet.
Apparently, that fact doesn’t impress Google’s rival, Microsoft Corp.
Asked at an annual summit in San Francisco to compare the appeal of an Android phone and Microsoft Windows device, Ballmer didn’t go out of his way to compliment his competition: “You don’t need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone and you do to use an Android phone … It is hard for me to be excited about the Android phones," Ballmer said, according to The Telegraph.
Ballmer may not get excited about Android, but he may be in the minority. In the three-month average ending in August, Google’s operating system controlled 43.7 percent of the smartphone market in the United States, according to data released by comScore. That makes Android the most popular smartphone platform in the country well ahead of iPhone maker Apple (27.3 percent) and BlackBerry supplier Research in Motion (19.7 percent). Microsoft’s share during the same period was just 5.7 percent, according to comScore.
Microsoft is hoping that its Windows Phone operating system – and partnership with the world’s largest handset maker, Nokia Corp. – will radically boost its share in the smartphone market. Last month, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant introduced Windows Phone 7.5, the first major release since the predecessor Windows Phone 7 launched about a year ago. Microsoft said the new version includes hundreds of new features and has received early reviews that are flattering. Microsoft also has noted several devices powered by its operating system will be introduced in time for the holidays and in the first part of 2012.
