Microsoft Could Seize Third Place in Mobile in 2012

Hoping to take the third place in a market that only has four active participants in the mainstream. And everyone know where the BlackBerry OS is going.

The hopeful, success implying tone of the article was priceless =)

Yep....I believe it was Dale Earnhardt of NASCAR fame that said something like:

"Coming in second place just means you are the first loser."

We're number 3; we don't try at all. :)

Anywhere outside of NASCAR, people will have no idea JD....nice tie-in.

#3 in mobile, huh?!?! I thought there were only 3 mobile OS "players" anymore... Is Simbian still around?!?!

Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Mobile

Well, in that case,... M$ making #3 in mobile??? Yeah,... and if my mother had wheels, she'd be a wagon.

I guess they are talking about smartphones here.

There are still a h#ll of a lot of semi-smart phones out there running with in house proprietary OSes (for want of a better term) that are not specifically named and I wouldn't like to hazard a guess where they lie in the grand scheme of things.

The Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

^ I am so going to watch some Monty Python tonight.

And have some Holy Grail Ale!

At this point Microsoft is #5 behind Symbian, which is still around. I also wouldn't bet on BlackBerry OS going the way of the dodo bird. I would bet on a fairly radical overhaul.

I agree Caitlyn. Blackberry has a HUGE enterprise following and that sort of market does not fold up and go away anytime soon. Heck, I myself have owned blackberry phones from time to time and I like them. Unfortunately, as much as I find myself away from my computer, I need web access often and the traditional blackberry did not do the web well. Hence, my move to Android. This may have changed in the past couple of years, and if Blackberry wants to compete, they will have to move past the "we do email best" model.

Today's business requires we communicate with our customers, associates and employers in Facebook, G+, in various forums and other web-based communication formats. I have a headhunter that notifies me of scripting contracts via my LinkedIn messaging service. Even with my latest Blackberry, I had to wait to get to a terminal to reply.

That being said, I still pull out the old BB Curve and contemplate reactivating it if only for the tactile keyboard. Even after 6 months of using my Android, I still suffer from fat finger syndrome and am highly frustrated by the touchpad keyboard. It takes me forever to respond to the simplest of texts.

Fat-finger fix: rotate counter-clockwise 90º.

Nope Gus....still fat. I need a pad the size of an aircraft carrier. Besides, I tend to "hover" too close to the keys and inadvertently trigger input. I spend more time backing up the cursor than moving forward.

@helios - My Blackberry is much more tolerable since Opera Mini's latest version speeded up web browsing. The standard BB web browser is not good in my experience. I would love it if Firefox would make their mini-browser work with the Blackberry.