New stats show small decline in Windows Phone’s market share

Mar 1, 2016 13:29 GMT  ·  By

Windows Phone is generally referred to as the “mobile operating system with 3 percent market share,” but recent statistics have shown that it actually dropped well below that limit, with Gartner data pointing to a 1.1 percent share in early 2016.

But it seems that it pretty much depends on whom you ask, as new figures provided by Net Applications have indicated that Windows Phone is currently at 2.57 percent market share, so only a little below the renowned 3 percent market share.

Android continues to be the leading mobile platform around the world with a share of 59.65 percent, followed by iOS with 32.28 percent.

Only small decline

But although Windows Phone has indeed declined in the last few months, it’s not the end of the world, as the drop is only small, and the platform is now at the same level as in July 2015, for instance.

Net Applications indicates that Windows Phone reached the highest share in November 2015, when it was powering 3.14 percent of the phones in the world. It then started dropping, first to 2.58 percent in December, before recovering to 2.96 percent in January.

In the meantime, the whole Windows community is waiting for Windows 10 Mobile, the new operating system that’s offered as a free upgrade to Windows Phone devices. Windows 10 Mobile is already available on a bunch of new Lumia phones, including 950, 950 XL, 550, and 650, and can be installed through the Insider program on older models as well.

Microsoft said that Windows 10 Mobile was scheduled to launch “in early 2016,” but at this point, no specifics are provided, so there’s no other choice than to wait. Clearly, the faster the new operating system is released, the better, especially given the fact that some users are getting tired of waiting for the new OS and decide to jump ship to a different platform.