Slowly, Microsoft's Tablets And Phones Are Getting Adopted And That's Good News For The Vast Majority Of Advisors Hot

According to a post on Forbes today, Microsoft Says Windows Phone 8 App Downloads Have Doubled And Revenue Up 140%, the number of app downloads doubled and paid app revenue was up 140% increase. Neither Forbes nor Micorosoft said over what period these remarkable results were achieved, but it respresents the almost daily drumbeat of good news coming out of Microsoft lately.

Whenever I speak at a conference, I ask advisors in the audience if they're using Windows to run their business. Last week, I was in Connecticut but it does not matter where I ask this question. The answers across the U.S. seem always the same. Maybe 10% of advisors have switched their businesses to Apple's operating system and fewer than 5% have switched to Google's operating system.

Advisors may use iPads on the road and love them. They may buy Android phones. But the software they use  to run their operation is Microsoft, and they're almost all are reliant on Outlook for email.

Apple's charge at Microsoft's domination among advisors seems to have peaked, and Google's effort at becoming a serious operating system that can compete with Microsoft in RIAs remains in its infancy. Meanwhile, Microsoft is finally offering some competition to iPads, iPhones and Android phones.

Windows 8 lets an advisor run a tablet, phone, and desktop using the same operating system. It's good for touchscreen and mouse navigation. It's a complicated platform but a powerful one, and Windows 8 is stable.

Point is, you don't need to spend too much time chasing down systems not integrated with Microsoft products. In the end, Microsoft will remain a reliable operating system for running an advisory firm and it is closing the gap in competing against tablets and phones from Apple and Google.

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