14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has invested a lot in Windows 10 Mobile, and although the company doesn’t assume this platform would take off overnight (living proof is CEO Satya Nadella’s statement, who says that they are more interested in Windows’ share overall, and not just in the mobile performance), users certainly expect increased market share.
But according to a new forecast by IDC, that’s not going to happen, at least not by 2019.
IDC puts Windows Phone at 2.2 percent right now and says that, while sales will increase year on year by 2019, Windows 10 Mobile won’t make such a big difference. In 4 years, Windows phones should have around 2.3 percent of the market, the company estimates.
“Despite all the effort Microsoft has put into the launch of Windows 10, IDC does not expect Microsoft's share of the smartphone OS market to grow much over the coming years,” IDC says in its report.
Lack of partner support
Pricing of available devices plays a key role most of the time, but for Microsoft, it doesn’t seem to pay off, IDC explains.
“In 2015, IDC expects the average selling price (ASP) of Windows Phones to be $148, which is $71 lower than Android's ASP of $219. This was brought about by the Microsoft/Nokia push into the low-end mass market. While this approach helped drive shipments up to 34.9 million units in 2014, IDC is forecasting a year-over-year decline of -10.2% in 2015, followed by further decline in 2016,” it further adds.
One of the reasons Windows phones adoption would remain low is the lack of OEM partner support, it says, and this is indeed one of the problems that Microsoft is trying to tackle these days.
Right now, Microsoft is the main producer of phones running Windows, and despite the fact that other companies have already announced Windows devices too, support for this platform remains very low.
Things could change in 4 years, but given the fact that Microsoft’s planning to end support for Windows 10 Mobile in 2019, this could be a fresh start for the company in the mobile industry.