14 DAY TRIAL // They say Windows phones are dead and only a few people are still using them, but according to new data provided by comScore, there are at least 1.6 percent of Americans who don’t want to see Microsoft’s smartphone OS go.
comScore’s new figures analyze the top smartphone platforms in the 3-month period ending January 2017 and, unsurprisingly, Android is the leading choice with 53.2 percent market share. Apple’s iOS comes very close with 44.6 percent, while Microsoft and BlackBerry are far behind with 1.6 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.
Other research firms put Windows phones below the 1 percent threshold worldwide, so seeing the platform at 1.6 percent in the United States is quite a surprise, although it’s worth mentioning that the drop in comScore data has been huge in the last 12 months.
Last year, for example, Windows phones were running on more than 2.5 percent of phones, so Microsoft lost nearly half of its market share in its home country.
At this point, it’s hard to determine how many users stick with the platform as comScore hasn’t provided any figures regarding the total number of smartphones in the United States, but MSPU estimates that approximately 3 million Americans are still there with Windows phones given the past figures.
New phone coming this year?
Unfortunately, comScore’s data shows once again that Windows phones are losing market share and long-time Microsoft watchers can hardly be surprised.
The company itself has been mostly tight-lipped about its mobile vision in the last 12 months, although rumor has it that it might launch a new phone as soon as this year.
Even though everyone’s waiting for the eagerly-anticipated Surface Phone, it looks like Microsoft is actually planning a different Windows 10 Mobile device that could see daylight in late 2017 as a successor to the Lumia 950.
These are all rumors for the time being, but it appears that Surface Phone development takes more time than originally expected, with the target now being a release in 2018 or even 2019.