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When you run the numbers on Microsoft’s mobile platform, it doesn’t look good. Despite the debut of Windows Phone 7 about a year and a half ago, the company is losing mobile users faster than it can add them.
For a three month period ending in February, Microsoft nabbed a paltry 3.9 per cent of the market, slipping 1.3 percentage points from November and 3.8 points from a year ago, the latest figures from comScore show. Redmond currently lags far behind even BlackBerry, which has been dealing with massive problems of its own, and snagged 13.4 per cent of the space in February.
Microsoft’s platform has been on a free fall since the end of 2007, the year Apple just about started digging graves for these second-tier platforms by introducing the iPhone. At that point, Microsoft still controlled 36 per cent, according to comScore, but by the end of 2009, that figure had been slashed in half to 18 percent.
For the record, Apple and Google are sitting pretty, currently speaking for 30.1 and 50.1 per cent of the OS share respectively.
So what, if anything, can Microsoft do to get it back? Or at least, can it stop losing ground? It’s banking pretty hard on the new Nokia Lumia 900, and in all honesty, the pretty little device is not a bad gadget to bet on. While it’s a step in the right direction, Microsoft is on a downward trajectory, and it needs to do something drastic to get people interested in its OS. [ReadWriteWeb]
It looks like the people who bought the launch handsets on 12-18 month contracts are slowly dropping it as it hasn’t changed much since the launch.
I doubt that Microsoft would drop the platform if the decline continues as they’ve got the money to keep pumping into it.
Microsoft will keep pumping money into it because they need a stake in mobile. It is possible that down the line our phones, tablets and desktop computers will run the same OS (Both windows and OSX/iOS show signs of heading this way already) Windows needs to keep a foot in the door of mobile whatever happens and OEM’s want to have an alternative to Android in case that all goes south or becomes more restrictive/expensive.
I disagree, Android didn’t change a whole lot in the first 12-18 months, and iOS hasn’t really changed that much since birth. The difference is in the app store.
Windows apps store is growing fast, and it’s certainly looking a whole lot better than it did 12 months ago, but it’s still behind Android and iOS quite badly. What Microsoft really need to do is expand the app store, and if they can;t get third parties to do it fast enough, then they should do it themselves.
How is this data worked out? By the sounds of it they are just surveying people who own smartphones rather than going on people who brought new phones? If so, then could this not be explained by people ditching Windows Mobile rather than WP7 losing people? By all accounts (on WM poweruser and WP central) the number of people using the WP7 Facebook app is growing quite quickly..
Article ends mid sentence, the authorities have been informed.
Apple and Android have always been great with retentions, because they have a great product and are always in the news. I have never used a Windows 7 phone, but I think as contracts are coming up, they want to try other O/S and many probably decide to try a change.
I bet very few people would be willing to move from Android or Apple to Windows though. I would also bet that the App stores also do a lot to help keep customers on a particular O/S. Do Windows have a well developed app store?
I know Blackberry’s app store isn’t the greatest but they got a foothold in the market early and I have family members that will not move away from them due to the simplicity.
Windows app store is the fastest growing app store ever. It really has come on in leaps and bounds in teh last 12 months, and most of the apps you would expect to be there are there now. The problem is choice, it might have the big apps, but it doesn’t have all teh other little apps that you are use to on Android and iOS.
I disagree with people wanting to move off it, I for one moved from Android to Windows and even though I still keep a Android phone my Windows phone is used a whole lot more, as it’s much nicer to use. I think the problem is not picking up enough new users, rather than keeping exsiting users.
I’m sure it is growing fast. As would any new app store that is created as all the publishers will rush to make their app available.
As for people leaving, they obviously do as they are, as stated in the article. But I for one hope that MS do stick it out and make a success of everything. The more competition the better.
Actually you are quite incorrect…
People are leaving behind their Windows Mobile devices, not their windows Phone devices.
Both are completely different OS’s and if you look at the individual stats, windows phone is growing. It will only increase spead as more Nokia phones are released and updated to windows phone 8.
I think Microsoft needs to work on the retailers a lot harder as well as the App Store.
Having seen my Windows Mobile phone, and suffering with the ‘cluttered’ Android phone he’d been rocking, my flatmate was convinced he wanted a Lumia 800, going on about it for weeks, actually getting excited (he’s not really into tech and hates ‘flashy’ phones). He hit Carphone Warehouse this weekend……. and came back with a iPhone 4Gs on a 24 month contract.
He was offered the iPhone at a cheaper price for the hardware and for the contract than he could get with a Windows Mobile phone. Apparently the assistant kept talking him back to the iPhone. Me thinks Apple’s kickbacks are better than Microsoft’s…
Same problem I have with mobile phone shops, even if you want a Windows Phone they really do seem to want to sell you an iPhone above all others. You must be right, the kick backs are just better.
I don’t have a WP7 and am not interested in buying one in the short or medium term.
But I’m excited to see what happens with Windows 8 and the tablets. If that all takes off, I’d love to have one ecosystem across my phone, pc and tablet. So I desperately hope Windows Phone struggles on, even though I’m not giving it any money yet. There’s just no reason yet to move from Android to WP7, especially given that Android is really mature now.
Microsoft really need to prove their UX paradigm, which will hopefully happen when people get Metro shoved down their stubborn throats
It really pains me to read about how badly WP is doing, more than it did when WebOS flopped.
Couldn’t agree more. I’ve been waiting avidly for a tablet ecosystem that’s at least rivalling iOS as Android still really lacks support. Metro looks so amazing and there’s a decent feature set available, all that’s needed is so software to make devices more functional. I think Microsoft should forget about phones, they’ve really fighting a losing battle, but the tablet market is one ripe for competition.
Windows Phone 8 sucks for three main reasons…
- Closed OS.
- Hardware restrictions causing the hardware to be so dated.
- Microsoft suck at updates.
Let me get this right…. You said “Closed OS”, which means you don’t use Iphone, therefore i would think you are an android user, yet you say “Microsoft suck at updates”
I would be careful what you throw in that glass house of yours.
Microsoft will just have to suck it up and get their phones selling for a massive loss for the next few years. It’s the only way if you are a late entrant to the market and no real way to differentiate from the incumbent competition. Sell at a loss, steal market share – that’s the only way I think they can pull it back. At the moment they’ve got another Zune on their hands.