14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Phone’s app crisis deepens, as another developer is pulling it+s app from the platform, and although a reason wasn’t provided, it’s most likely because of the declining market share and the pessimistic forecasts for the OS.
Delta has decided to abandon its Fly Delta Windows Phone app, telling users to turn to the browser if they want to get the same functionality on their devices powered by Microsoft’s mobile OS.
“We’re sorry for the inconvenience as this app is no longer supported. You can always visit delta.com from your mobile phone to book a flight, check in and view flight status,” a notification provided to users of the app reveals.
Delta is not the first company that decides to jump ship and concentrate on Android and iOS, and in most cases, the reason is pretty much the same, as developers see almost no reason to continue investing in Windows Phone apps given the declining market share and the dropping number of users.
IDC’s gloom forecast
Unfortunately, very little is going to change, according to a recent forecast from IDC, as the market analyst firm expects Windows Phone to continue its collapse until 2020 when it could reach a market share of 0.1 percent. Microsoft can’t stop Windows Phone’s decline despite the possible debut of a Surface Phone, IDC says.
“Microsoft's mobile platform remained largely a non-story in 2016 other than HP's reentry into the smartphone space with the X3 product. IDC projects Windows Phone shipments to decline 79.1% in 2016 as the number of OEMs supporting the platform continue to diminish,” IDC pointed out.
“Rumors of a Surface Phone from Microsoft continue to linger, but the drawn out hurdle of a much needed mobile ecosystem has not gone away. Unless Microsoft has a way to get around this, IDC anticipates a tough road ahead for the platform.”
At this point, Windows Phone has a 0.5 percent market share, but given the fact that more devs are leaving the platform and Microsoft doesn’t seem to be too interested in bringing new devices to the market, a decline is very likely to be experienced in the long term.