by Daniel Costello

Microsoft Corp. said Thursday it sold twice as many copies of Windows 7 than previous versions of its operating system. Windows 7, the latest version of Microsoft's operating system, has received favorable reviews and is considered to be better than its predecessor, Vista.

The downside: the aging tech giant is getting beaten up worse than expected in the all-important mobile software market for smartphones.

 

A year ago, Microsoft looked comfortable in the mobile market, coming off another year of growth and holding a promising 11 percent global market share, almost tied with Apple's 12.9 percent and just behind Research in Motion's (the maker of Blackberrry) 16 percent.

Now, Windows Mobile's marketshare stands at 7.9 percent. Competitors are eating the company's lunch: Apple's (OS X) market share rose to 17.1 percent and RIM also grew significantly, now at 20.8 percent.