HTC Windows Phone

Windows Phone market share tumbles below 3%

Trade

15 August 2014

As global smartphone shipments hit a historic high of 301.3 million in the second quarter, third-ranked Windows Phone OS’ share of that pie stumbled to well below 3%.

Despite shipping for four years, Windows Phone-based devices accounted for only 2.5% of the total smartphone market in the second quarter of 2014, down from 3.4% in the year-earlier period, IDC reported Thursday. Overall Windows Phone shipments for the second quarter totaled some 7.4 million, down 9.4% from the 8.2 million shipped a year earlier, IDC said.

Meanwhile, shipments of Android phones from various manufacturers, including Samsung, HTC, LG and Motorola, surged by 33%, to 255.3 million during the period. Android devices accounted for 84.7% of the overall smartphone market during the period.

Shipments of Apple’s iPhone grew by 12.7% to 35.2 million, though its market share of 11.7% was down from 13% a year earlier.

“It’s been an incredible upward slog” for Windows Phone and other smaller OS players in the smartphone market,” said IDC analyst Melissa Chau in a statement. “Windows Phone has been around since 2010 but has yet to break the 5% share mark.”

Windows Phone did slightly better in the second quarter than in the first 2014 period – though IDC said the sequential improvement was statistically insignificant.

The continuing problem with Windows Phone and other small OS players have is getting partners, mostly manufacturers and developers. Developers tend to work in small shops and can reduce their workload by working with just the two primary smartphone OS ecosystems, Android and iOS, Chau said.

Read More:


Back to Top ↑

TechCentral.ie