Windows Phone revenue dropped 72 percent in FY Q1 2017

Oct 21, 2016 04:55 GMT  ·  By

It’s no longer a surprise that Windows Phone is declining, and with Microsoft not really active in this market in the last year, it’s hard to imagine that anything could change overnight.

As a result, the company’s FY 2017 Q1 financial results reveal another decline for Windows Phone, only a couple of months before Microsoft is expected to kill off the Lumia brand and continue this dropping trend.

Specifically, Microsoft said the Phone revenue declined 72 percent (down 71 percent in constant currency), but the company doesn’t seem to be at all concerned, mostly because its other units performed relatively well.

Windows OEM revenue, for instance, was flat year-over-year, slightly ahead of the PC market as the company itself said, while gaming revenue recorded a small drop of 5 percent. What’s interesting is that Xbox Live has a total of 47 million active users, down from 49 million the quarter before, but still an improvement from 39 million year-over-year.

The end of the Lumia brand

The overly discussed decline of Windows Phone is expected to reach a new milestone in December when Microsoft could officially retire the Lumia brand and concentrate all of its efforts on a single phone model, presumably called Surface Phone.

Specifics are not yet known, but rumor has it that Microsoft wants to focus on just one flagship device, letting partners build a wider range of phones, including low-end and mid-range models. At the same time, Microsoft would continue improving Windows 10 Mobile, with a major update projected to see daylight in spring 2017 as Redstone 2.

Microsoft has also said on several occasions that it wants to continue supporting Windows 10 Mobile and work with partners on devices, but the company has remained completely tight-lipped on everything regarding its device lineup.

The Surface Phone is likely to launch next year, according to people with knowledge of the matter, but depending on how work on this device advances, it could very well be pushed to early 2018 as well.