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Windows Phone market share shrinks to just 2.5%
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Windows Phone sales have been consistently increasing year-over-year each quarter for the last year, but new figures show that growth has significantly stalled recently. IDC reports that Windows Phone sales dropped by 9.4 percent in Q2 2014 compared to the same period last year. That’s a big set back for Microsoft’s Windows Phone efforts, just months after the company acquired Nokia’s phone making business. Overall, it means Windows Phone accounts for just 2.5 percent market share in the recent quarter. Compare that to the nearly 85 percent for Android and nearly 12 percent for iOS, and it's clear to see the challenge Microsoft faces.
http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/14/6003427/windows-phone-sales-decline-q2-2014-idc
http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/14/6003427/windows-phone-sales-decline-q2-2014-idc
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Now you have some awesome Android alternatives (like the Moto G or even the Moto E, plus other bargains from Alcatel and other Chinese firms) that will have a big knock on sales.
Edit: Just read article and it says much the same.
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS25037214
A nice UI (getting better all the time with 8.1 updates) and actually quite a few of the apps people want. But it's still not quite good enough.
I much prefer the interface on WP (I have a 1020 with 8.1 GDR1) to anything I've used on Android or iOS. It really does work exceptionally well. But MS and marketing are not a good combination. Same could be said for Nokia back in the day as well. Even with a good product, MS are completely incapable of convincing people to buy their devices.
Although the more I use it, the more I realise that the 1020 definitely isn't one of those devices with an "awesome camera". My old 808 has been brought back into action for camera duty, as the 1020 just isn't reliable on that count.
That's the problem though. There have been many decent OSes and some excellent UIs designed for them - but that doesn't mean success. In fact, success appears to be purely down to the availability of apps and games. Microsoft is getting better, but has a long way to go.
And, as you say, the way it's advertised is lacking. In fact, most of the advertising still seems to be unchanged from the start. You have the hipster running his or her own business, most likely some sort of design business, thus needing a good camera and the connectivity with Windows/Office. And variations of said theme.
The higher end models aren't selling anywhere near as much as the low-end, which now has the severe competition. Similar priced handsets with decent specifications, but the added benefit of Google and its ecosystem, are bound to hurt sales.
And if Microsoft can't find a way to promote the mid-high end phones, nothing is going to change.
I don't think that releasing a load more phones is really the answer either. While as a whole you can argue that WP suffers because it's only really Nokia/Microsoft making phones (a few exceptions from time to time, like the HTC coming soon, doesn't really count) at the same time, there are probably too many Lumia handsets on sale. It just confuses people, and also annoys retailers that hardly want to range lots of models that don't sell in large numbers anyway.
Going by that and the atrocious W8 PC operating system im suprised they have that much of the market!!
On the flip side my wife has an HTC 8S and loves it. You can't really compare Windows 8 to Windows Phone 8.
I think part of the problem is apps and another part is that WP has only recently received important features like a proper notification centre.
Id quite like to try windows 8 phones but the MS Apps available on android always seem a bit bland and 'low res'. Im not interested in plastic multi-coloured phones either.
Are many of the tiles now 'live tiles' ?
Windows Mobile was a desktop interface forced onto a phone. Windows 8 is a phone interface forced onto a desktop. Neither is a good idea. However there is nothing wrong with Windows 8 that startisback or classic shell can't cure.
People are getting bored with squares.
Circles are the in-thing now anyway.
Although there is a partly shared code base, Windows 8.x and Windows Phone 8 are very different things which happen to share a similar looking UI.
It's a shame. Windows Phone 7 was a ground breaking phone OS which was built new from the ground up. The poor reputation of Windows 8 has actually done Windows Phone a lot of harm. MS also decided to target the consumer market first rather than attack the corporate market recently opened up by the demise of RIM Blackberry.
I've used Windows Mobile and Windows Phone for many years, but I too have had enough. My next phone will probably be an iPhone as I have a collection on apps on my iPad which I would like to use on a phone. Shame.
Sure its growing, but not fast enough.
Ive heard plenty of times apps advertised as being available for Osx / Android, but no mention of Windows.
Stuff i want isnt available yet on Windows Apps.
And why can i get stuff on win 8.1 desktop/pc but its not available for win phone?
There are literally no OEMs who have confidence in Windows Phone. Samsung and HTC barely even care, both of them quietly release 1 or 2 models a year, it's possible that they could just stop producing Windows Phone devices altogether due to the low sales.
HTC heavily promoted the 8X yet it was still a sales flop. I'm not surprised that they don't care. Microsoft effectively alienated all of their partners when they acquired Nokia. No-one wants to be in direct competition with the platform creator as they know they can't compete. Google was smart and offloaded Motorola fairly quickly, but Microsoft scared off all of their potential partners when they entered the mobile market themselves. Unfortunately now, the only notable OEM for their platform at this point is themselves.
The ecosystem is also a serious issue, the Windows Store is growing, but it just cannot compete with the App Store and Play Store. Windows Phone was growing in the mid-range quite significantly, but since the Moto G (which Google was responsible for) and now the Moto E, I suspect Windows Phone is being rapidly pushed back down by Android, which would explain their dismal performance this year.
I think it's a sinking ship at this point. Google is just too established in the whole range of the market, Apple can hold its own, but Palm, Blackberry and now Nokia have been eliminated as a consequence. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft is next. They have the cash to burn on Windows Phone, but I think it has just become a waste of time.
In 2011, there were 9.0 Million Windows Phone/Mobile smartphones shipped worldwide. This gave Windows Phone/Mobile a total market share of 1.8%.
In 2012 there were a total of 17.5m Windows Phone smartphones shipped worldwide. This gave Windows Phone a total market share of 2.4%.
In 2013 there were a total of 33.4m Windows Phone smartphones shipped worldwide. This gave Windows Phone a total market share of 3.3%.
In the first half of 2014 we have seen a total of 13.6m Windows Phone smartphones shipped. This gives Windows Phone a total market share of 2.3% for the first half of 2014.
To compare, this time last year there were 15.4m Windows Phone smartphones shipped in the first half of 2013 which is more than the 13.6m shipped for the first half of 2014. So Windows Phone shipments have dropped YOY. And in a growing smartphone market that means market share has significantly dropped as well.
In 2012, Nokia Lumia smartphones accounted for 76% of the total number of Windows Phones shipped. In 2013, the mix grew to 90% and for the first half of 2014 Nokia Lumia smartphones account for 84% of total Windows Phone shipments.
The current install base for Windows Phone is 53 million which gives Windows Phone a 3% market share for smartphones in use worldwide.
Based on the information it's clear that Windows Phone isn't exactly taking off. If you look at the growth of Android and compare it to the growth of Windows phone you can see that Android grew at a much faster rate. Last year it was pretty clear that Nokia Lumia devices were really the only Windows Phone devices on the market and thus they were easily able to claim 90% market share in the Windows Phone ecosystem. This year we've seen a few more manufacturers join in and that's why Lumia has seen it's market share drop slightly. I do fully believe that Lumia shipments will stay above 80% total now that Microsoft is in control but I don't see them getting back up to 90% after all the other low cost options from other manufacturers. And that's all these ~10/20% of phones are, low cost budget phones from some manufacturers. We won't see any direct competition with the mid and high end Lumia phones though as they won't sell.
In other words, Windows Phone is pretty much in the hands of Microsoft right now and it hasn't been doing well this year in terms of growth. Shipments are less than last year and in a growing smartphone market that means market share is less and Microsoft should be worried We could even see a decline in shipments for 2014 compared to 2013.
For those who wish for a Nokia phone, I'd say wait until 2015 or 2016 when you're almost certainly going to see its return. Nokia will almost certainly go with Android and should have no trouble raising finance, re-hiring key staff or parenting with another company. I've long felt HTC would be ideal to partner and manufacture devices for a newly relaunched Nokia brand. Could help HTC massively too.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/24/90_days_of_android_sales_almost_top_nine_months_of_windows_10_sales/
Let's look on the bright side, the only way is up, possibly
But as a consumer device it looks dead.
If a company is going to issue a device employees want, it's going to need to be an iPhone or Android phone (perhaps the BlackBerry Priv?) as that's what they'll ask for. Of course you could just say they'll get what they're given, but then they'll use two phones and take little to no care of the company phone.
Microsoft wanted to get the consumers, hence why Windows Phone launched in the first place (with Windows Mobile still going in the background - and still used by many businesses today).
All good points.
Microsoft will find point successes in businesses today through things like the HP Elite x3 but they are gone from the mass market for now.
Windows 10 Mobile will continue to exist as now the software cost for them to maintain is much lower now they have OneCore.
Windows 10 desktop is making a big push on the ink front in the July 2016 edition and we will probably see that follow down into the Surface phone.
If the AI/chatbot world grows as predicted by Microsoft, Google and Facebook then the app disadvantage will become less important over time.
Amazon can get amazing intelligence about purchasing habits but otherwise only Microsoft Google Facebook are well placed for the AI assistant world through their respective search engines and knowledge graph.