14 DAY TRIAL //
Kantar has just released the latest smartphone OS sales share numbers, revealing that Windows Phone keeps losing ground pretty much all over the world.
Unfortunately for those who hoped to see Microsoft’s smartphone platform returning to growth, this isn’t happening, and the three-month data ending October 2016 shows that Windows Phone is declining even in the markets where it performed the best in the past.
Windows Phone OS sales share
First and foremost, let’s see how Windows Phone performed in Europe versus the same period one year ago - Europe has long been considered a successful market for Microsoft in mobile and sales here exceeded numbers achieved in the United States.
In Germany, Windows Phone dropped no less than 4.5 percent versus 2015, so it’s now at 2.4 percent, while in the United Kingdom, the platform lost 5.3 percent to settle at 2.9 percent.
A similar trend was maintained in France were Windows Phone went down 5.2 percent to 4.8 percent, but also in Italy, where the drop was even bigger from 11.3 percent to 4.3 percent. Spain makes no exception, but what’s even worse is that Windows Phone is now at 0.3 percent here.
Overall, Windows Phone is now at 3.2 percent in the EU5 region, and this means that, versus 2015, the platform lost no less than 5 percent of its share.
Going down in the US as well
As far as the United States market is concerned, Windows Phone lost 1.4 percent of its share, so it’s now powering only 1.2 percent of the new smartphones sold here. A similar collapse was experienced in China as well, where Windows Phone was down 2.3 percent to 0.1 percent, but also in Australia, where it dropped from 6.5 percent to 3 percent.
Unfortunately, this is mostly happening because of the lack of new devices and the decreasing interest from developers, with fewer users planning to buy Windows phones. Rumor has it that Microsoft is now getting ready to announce the demise of the Lumia brand, so these figures are likely to get even worse next month.