Microsoft’s Smartphone Marketshare Down 0.4% Since January

http://mashable.com/2012/07/02/microsoft-windows-phone-market-share/

by SlipperySlope • 14 years ago

26 25 14 years ago

I personally just don't see why I'd ever want to buy one. As a developer, I'm not interested in the MS ecosystem (been there). As a consumer, WP7 isn't the cheapest option either (I'd rather use VirginMobile or StraightTalk), nor does it have the most active and exciting app store. A lot of the apps I care about aren't ported (yet at least) to the OS. Most likely won't be as long as its market share is around 4%. Don't really care about XboxLive integration, I don't even have a TV to plug a 360 into. Zune integration is nice, simply because the Zune pass is a great offering and they killed the music player that used to support it. However, now that Spotify is almost completely caught up to Zune pass's catalog, there's not much of a reason to use a Windows-only service either. Skydrive/Office online integration? Google's services do the job well enough that I don't see a particularly compelling reason to switch over to MS's counterparts.

Can someone give me a reason why I should care?

justauser• 14 years ago

I can't but I can think of another reason not to buy one. Windows Phone 7 is not upgradeable to Windows Phone 8. There will be a Windows 7.8 update but it's end of the road for that particular ecosystem as well. So with that announced to be available "sometime towards the end of the year" they've probably hurt the few potential Windows Phone 7 candidates interested in a device. What was Nokia thinking?

rbanffy4• 14 years ago

> What was Nokia thinking?

"Microsoft needs our patents to extort more money from Android makers, but buying Nokia would irk their few OEMs. We need to make Nokia fail while it remains closely aligned to Microsoft so they will be in a privileged position to acquire our portfolio"

:-) I'm no telepath, but you assume Elop's best interest is a thriving Nokia. I am quite sure he'll make up for his lost performance bonuses in other, maybe less direct, ways.

SlipperySlope• 14 years ago

Elop was previously employed by Microsoft in one of their cash cow business units in which they were effective monopolists. It does not take much imagination to see how that environment so ill-suited Elop to run Nokia - and worse, to be empowered to make sweeping changes.

jimueller• 14 years ago

A choice other than Android and iOS?

Personally, I absolutely think the Metro UI is great and that is really what I enjoy about Windows Phone. Zune is probably second for me. I do have an Xbox and a Zune HD so I appreciate the convenience that offers for me. I understand you could have a similar experience with other services.

aik3• 14 years ago

Few points:

- As the article states, WP7 has been getting excellent reviews and has very high customer satisfaction (much higher than Android to my knowledge). I'd say this shows potential? Personally I find it much cleaner and easier to use than Android (and iPhone in many cases).

- Many reports have been showing WP7 phones as best sellers on T-Mobile, AT&T, and Amazon, meaning it is gaining marketshare and apps are increasing steadily (now >100k). I believe this is a key point in the article, "It should be noted that comScore doesn’t break out figures for Windows Phone 7, which means that much of the activity may have been driven by Windows Mobile users dumping their old phones..."

- Concerning WP7 being the cheapest option -- there are phones in the entire range, just like Android (though to an even larger extent I believe)

- Just curious, most popular apps are available on WP7 now -- which ones wouldn't you be able to find?

- Concerning not being interested in MS ecosystem -- my understanding is that this is a brand new ecosystem, meaning you haven't been there (unless you've been part of the WP7 one)?

Edit: Added some details.

rbanffy4• 14 years ago

> reports have been showing WP7 phones as best sellers

You can do that by limiting the number of models offered. If you sell 1M WP7 phones of 3 models, all three are best sellers and your share is still low.

> brand new ecosystem

It doesn't have the new car smell - you use Visual Studio, on Windows, to develop for it. I've been there (Win+VS) and I feel no urge to go back.

sek• 14 years ago

The Metro UI is great and the phone is OK, but now Microsoft get's to taste how it is to be the minority platform.

MichaelGG• 14 years ago

The article is not clear if this is Windows Phone, or also including the old, sucky Windows Mobile. If the latter, I would expect to see their share continue to fall as people get off those old devices...

ghshephard• 14 years ago

I don't know if they updated it since you read it, but, the following excerpt made it clear that this includes all windows phones. " it should be noted that comScore doesn’t break out figures for Windows Phone 7, which means that much of the activity may have been driven by Windows Mobile users dumping their old phones for Android-based phones and iPhones. "

barranger• 14 years ago

Which really does two things:

1) makes this drop completely meaningless as it could be 100% Windows mobile

2) makes you wonder just how low the WP7 numbers would be without Windows Mobile

dantiberian• 14 years ago

The data was collected with these methods

> MobiLens data is derived from an intelligent online survey of a nationally representative sample of mobile subscribers age 13 and older. Data on mobile phone usage refers to a respondent’s primary mobile phone and does not include data related to a respondent’s secondary device.

I don't think that the 0.4% figure is statistically significant considering the much larger margin of error likely to be in the results.

revscat• 14 years ago

I am starting to wonder if Microsoft's problem is something quite other than the quality of the product they produce. From everything I have read, WP is a well made platform: smooth, stable, and a pleasure to look at. While I have not personally done anything other than casually play with a demo model, none of the reviews I have seen have said anything seriously negative about it. MS has put a lot of time and effort into this, and it seems that they are doing everything (or at least most things) right from a technical perspective.

And yet... Success is not following.

Personally, I wouldn't consider a Windows phone simply because I have been so badly burned by Microsoft in the past. It has nothing to do with the quality of WP per se, but rather lingering negativity I built up from using some of their less than stellar products over the course of 20+ years.

I'm starting to wonder if this isn't more widespread than is generally acknowledged.

rbanffy4• 14 years ago

> none of the reviews I have seen have said anything seriously negative about it.

So, basically what they built is a phone that doesn't suck. Had they done it 6 years ago, they'd be on to something. Now others have successfully done that.

> I wouldn't consider a Windows phone simply because I have been so badly burned by Microsoft in the past

And now they managed to burn WP7 owners with the no upgrade option thing.

zanny• 14 years ago

Success is not following because smartphones have become a word of mouth trend. Everyone buys iphones because everyone they know has an iphone and they won't trust a rogue entity and they don't take the time to review a thousand dollar over 2 year commitment.

zmmmmm• 14 years ago

Since they don't break out the figures it is hard to tell if WP7 is going down or up. However in some ways that is not the point - if WP7 was doing anything like what Nokia needs it to do it would be busting out of that figure. Static sales mean a disaster for them, and perhaps ironically a windfall for Microsoft: now that they have decided to screw their existing WP7 users the last thing they need is for sales to pick up at this point, and if they do have an eye on purchasing Nokia (or its assets) the price for that is going rapidly down.

rsanchez1• 14 years ago

There just haven't been many notable Windows Phones lately. The most notable one to have come out recently is the Nokia Lumia 900. Meanwhile, Android has the HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy Nexus, pretty much any Samsung phone really, and Apple is, well, Apple. The OS might be great, but the devices are forgettable.

Microsoft’s Smartphone Marketshare Down 0.4% Since January

Related Stories