I just learned that the Windows Mobile market share was only 4% about a month ago. I knew the Apple iPhone market share was half the pie or more for a long time. I never thought to look at what it was for Windows Mobile so the size came as quite a shock to me. I had expected it to be at least a quarter (25%) - not 4% (1/25).To put that in perspective, look at the web browser market. See pie charts on the pages cited below. http://theappleblog.com/2009/11/02/chrome-to-pass- ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_br ...Firefox has 26% (over one quarter, and steadily rising) of the web browser market share.Apple Safari, maligned by detractors for "only" having 4.4% of the market has more market share than Windows Mobile has in its market.The Google "Chrome" web browser has quickly gained 3.5% market share after only existing for a year or so. And Chrome had to penetrate into a market populated by Firefox, Safari, and MS-Windows - all of which could trace their roots back to web browsers created over or at least nearly a decade ago!Google uses the same web engine as Safari, WebKit - which was created by Apple from a large amount of code from open source web browser KDE Konquorer of Linux fame. http://www.konqueror.org/ => http://www.apple.com/safari/ => http://webkit.org/ => http://www.google.com/chromeSo that gave Chrome a huge leg up. They were starting with a mature, proven web browser engine that was recognized as having good HTML/CSS support and a decent Javascript. Hopefully, Chrome has gotten some benefit from Apple adding some HTML 5 support this year to WebKit too.Nevertheless, these statistics in a familiar marketplace illustrate how tiny Microsoft's presence is in the mobile phone marketplace is. Microsoft is wisely recognizing where the market as gone, and rather than denying it - they are inviting its developers to come, and bring their apps with them to Windows Mobile from the iPhone. http://digg.com/microsoft/Microsoft_Details_How_to ...Microsoft has poo-pooed the Mac market share and Safari market share - even the Firefox market share as insignificant and not worth hackers' trouble. This is their explanation for the Windows & IE monopoly on worms & viruses. Now, that sized market share is one that Microsoft envies from its perspective at the bottom rung of the cell phone market.However, Windows Mobile, with its scant 4% market share has already acquired a virus. One that is hopefully benign in its intentions but not at all benign in its propensity to spread on its own and tenaciously cling to life despite efforts to remove it from a Windows Mobile phone or storage media. http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/02/27/windows-mo ... http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=33 ... (part 1/3) http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=33 ... (part 2/3) http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=33 ... (part 3/3) There is also a virus that cross infects Windows PCs and Windows Mobile phones from one another. http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=45 ...Given the way market share is supposedly - well, according to *some* people, the leading driver in how much malware successfully infects a platform, one would expect worms & viruses galore on iPhone and Firefox (26% market share). However, that is not the case.And why is it that Windows Mobile viruses have been reported in the news for years but the same is not true of Safari viruses. After all, Safari is the one with the larger market share.So, for that reason, Windows Mobile is an interesting platform. When one notes that the features that malware programmers enjoy on the Windows PC platform - for instance "autorun" - are present on Windows Mobile and used by its malware programmers as well, one gets a sense that actually flaws and risky features matter a lot. Popularity, it seems, plays second fiddle.