14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Phone continues to be the third most popular mobile operating system worldwide, but it's still very far behind iOS and Android.
The latest numbers coming from IDC indicate that Windows Phone gains in Western Europe are almost insignificant considering Microsoft's investments.
The Western Europe is one of the best markets for Microsoft, as the company has not really managed to break through the US market yet.
The Asian market is another important region for Windows Phone. Microsoft is currently going for the low-budget market, which is why it did not release a high-end smartphone in quite a long time.
One may think that power is numbers and Microsoft is trying to attract as many customers as possible through very low prices and decent smartphones.
This marketing policy might have had some positive effect in Western Europe where 10 million Windows Phone handsets were shipped in 2014. Obviously, most of them are Lumia smartphones.
Android and iOS market share have increased as well
No less than 145.8 million smartphones were shipped in Western Europe in 2014, of which 6.8%, meaning 9.9 million were powered by Windows Phone operating system.
That is a small improvement YOY (year over year) since back in 2013 in the same region only 8.2 million Windows Phone handsets were shipped, which accounts for 6%.
Unfortunately, a 0.8% increase in one year in Western Europe is not much, especially if we take into consideration the fact that Windows Phone lost some market share in other regions like China and the US for example.
As opposed to Windows Phone, Android's market share has grown from 70.8% in 2013 to 71.2% in 2014. There were 103.8 million Android smartphones shipped in 2014 in Western Europe.
iOS, the second most popular mobile OS, has a 21.2% market share in Western Europe, up 1.6% from 2013. No less than 30.9 million iPhones have been shipped in this region in 2014.
