CIO —

Microsoft (MSFT) mobile chief Robbie Bach may believe that the Linux OS will lose out to Windows Mobile in the smartphone space, but Linux Foundation director Jim Zemlin is having none of that.

In a blog post this week, Zemlin fired back at comments Bach made to financial analysts at CES (consumer electronics show) that there is too much complexity in Linux and too many versions for phone carriers to manage.

"I suppose if he [Microsoft's Robbie Bach] truly believes choice is a bad thing, he may believe Linux will lose, but market momentum and adoption numbers are proving quite the opposite."

Jim Zemlin, Executive Director, The Linux Foundation

"By Bach's count there are 17 variants of Linux available on mobile phones," writes Zemlin. "He sees this as a bad thing for customers. We, unsurprisingly, see this as a bad thing for Microsoft."

At CES, Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division, predicted a mobile OS shake-out where carriers will reject some Linux mobile operating systems because they complicate support issues. He stated that that various versions of Linux on mobile are "a little quirky and a little different, require separate network certifications, network product support, and the like that goes along with that."

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Bach also said that mobile Linux's "quality bar won't stack up, and they won't get the scale that they need."

To that line of argument, Zemlin countered that Linux mobile variants such as Android, Moblin, Palm WebOS, Maemo and others are growing rapidly on mobile devices ranging from smartphones to netbooks precisely because of the choice they offer hardware makers.

"Palm, Motorola (MOT) and others have jumped ship from Windows Mobile to Linux-based offerings in recent years," writes Zemlin. "LG is now using Android on 50 percent of its handsets. According to Gartner Group, Windows Mobile's global market share fell to 7.9 percent in the third quarter of 2009 down from 11.1 percent the same quarter of last year."

That Gartner report also cites that Android's market share grew from 0 percent in Q3 of 2008 (because it was brand new) to 3.9 percent in Q3 of 2009.

Indeed, Windows Mobile has been losing market share for the past two years while the iPhone and BlackBerry devices have had steady growth. An October survey by market researcher comScore marked the first time Windows Mobile's market share has fallen behind the iPhone, putting the iPhone in second place below BlackBerry and dropping Windows Mobile to third place.

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