Microsoft Watch has a good examination of the slow improvement in market share for Windows Mobile. Their assessment? The interface is hampering sales. Duh!

Symbian is, of course, the number one smartphone OS in the world simply because Nokia runs them exclusively and Nokia is doing pretty well (14 million Nokia phones shipped in Q1 2008 with 18.4 million Symbian phones shipped) while RIM is a distant second (4.3 million). Windows is at 3.86 and the “everyone else” is in the 2 million range. Palm is at 657 thousand, a sad place to be for the gentle giant.

That Symbian, something completely divorced from Microsoft, can eat Microsoft’s lunch is a damning situation. Unless the new versions start looking – and working – like Microsoft spent more than 40 man hours in in back in 1998, they’re in trouble.