Windows Phone Market Share Sinks Below 1 Percent (theverge.com)

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Windows Phone Market Share Sinks Below 1 Percent (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on Monday May 23, 2016 @07:15AM from the dead-platform,-shattered-dreams dept.

Tom Warren, reporting for The Verge: Worldwide smartphone sales increased by nearly 4 percent in the recent quarter, but Microsoft's Windows Phone OS failed to capitalize on the growth and dropped below 1 percent market share. Gartner's latest smartphone sales report provides the latest proof of the obvious: Windows Phone is dead. Gartner estimates that nearly 2.4 million Windows Phones were sold in the latest quarter, around 0.7 percent market share overall. That's a decrease from the 2.5 percent market share of Windows Phone back in Q1 2015.

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You mean Windows phones are rare as unicorns? by hey! · 2016-05-23 07:16 · Score: 5, Funny

OK, now I want one.

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1. Re:You mean Windows phones are rare as unicorns? by Opportunist · 2016-05-23 07:26 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Watch. And then decide if you really want one.
  
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  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
2. Re:You mean Windows phones are rare as unicorns? by NotDrWho · 2016-05-23 07:47 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Real cutting-edge hipsters are beginning to consider traditional Apple hipsters as poseurs. Retro Windows products and old mimeograph machines are so hot right now.
  
  --
  SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
3. Re:You mean Windows phones are rare as unicorns? by Opportunist · 2016-05-23 07:54 · Score: 2
  
  In other words, hold on to that Zune, it's gonna be worth something in a bit.
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
4. Re:You mean Windows phones are rare as unicorns? by peragrin · 2016-05-23 07:58 · Score: 2
  
  Give me a sec I am squirting out another brown zune as I type.
  Interesting autocorrect changed zune to sine, and then to zone before allowing zune.
  
  --
  i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
5. Re:You mean Windows phones are rare as unicorns? by NotDrWho · 2016-05-23 07:59 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Let's just say that Clippy is hot shit right now in all the hidden coffee/hookah clubs in north Tacoma.
  
  --
  SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
6. Re:You mean Windows phones are rare as unicorns? by hey! · 2016-05-23 08:04 · Score: 2
  
  Mimeograph? Pfft. Lamestream. Real hipsters use Gestetner machines. Cutting a stencil is so much more tactile, plus you can get high from the correcting fluid.
  
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7. Re:You mean Windows phones are rare as unicorns? by JustAnotherOldGuy · 2016-05-23 09:25 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Watch.
  
  What the fuck did I just watch??
  
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  Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
8. Re:You mean Windows phones are rare as unicorns? by chr1st1anSoldier · 2016-05-23 10:44 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  As a current Windows Phone user, no you don't. I started on Windows Phone 7 and I'm still here in WP10, the experience has pretty much gone down hill. With the Exception of WP8.1, that was halfway decent. Everything else has just..... sucked. Microsoft hid the date applications were last updated in their app store because many of their apps have turned into abandon ware. Android and iOS are so far a head in features and functionality, I really do get envious when I pick up an iPhone or a mid to highend Android device.
9. Re:You mean Windows phones are rare as unicorns? by Trongy · 2016-05-23 14:39 · Score: 2
  
  Spirit duplicators used alcohol based solvents and smelled good, much better than mimeograph prints. Spirit duplicators typically used purple ink.
no surprises here by goose-incarnated · 2016-05-23 07:17 · Score: 3, Interesting

Nokia would have done better without them.

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1. Re: no surprises here by Anonymous Coward · 2016-05-23 07:38 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  EVERYONE, including Nokia, knew this.
2+ million does not seem like dead... by SuperKendall · 2016-05-23 07:18 · Score: 4, Informative

I don't have a Windows phone, and don't know anyone that has one...
But even though percentage wise the share is small, 2+ million phones in a quarter sure seems a fairly long way from dead, especially given Microsoft's motivation to maintain at least a foothold in mobile.

--
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
1. Re:2+ million does not seem like dead... by jitterman · 2016-05-23 07:45 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  I had a Nokia 920, then a 1520, both running Win Phone 8. For the state of things at the time, they were promising and, honestly, great. More stable than Android at the time (that's anecdotal, but my wife had an Android phone and it seemed to have more issues than my phone did), and was far more customizable than an unrooted iPhone (LiveTiles really is a great idea, IMO). Sadly, the combined hardware-software improvement that came in the move from Phone 7 to Phone 8 was a one-time event, apparently.
  
  As I waited in anticipation for what I hoped would be some ground-breaking software innovations in 10 and fun/useful hardware features to give them life, I was at first in denial, then dismayed, next angry, and finally in acceptance (the ecosystem is diseased, after all) that MS entirely dropped the ball and screwed it all up. I'm no fanboy, but I really did hope for a strong third alternative. Once it was clear that my 1520 wasn't going to physically survive the last time I dropped it, I moved to a Nexus 6P, and I've been very pleased with the experience six months in.
  
  So long, MS - it's your fault that you lost someone who was willing to be a loyal customer if you had shown some competence in the mobile area. I work in IT for a hospital, and can report there were four other people in the department who owned one a year ago, and don't today, so I'm willing to lay odds that you've lost not one, but five. I suspect that 2 million and change will continue to slip downward.
  
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2. Re:2+ million does not seem like dead... by NotDrWho · 2016-05-23 07:53 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  The few people I have known who have actually used a Windows phone actually really liked them. I seriously considered one on my last upgrade. The only thing that kept me with Android was the uncertain future of Windows phone support and MS's tendency in the past to abandon its products. I buy a phone for the longer-term (I usually only upgrade every 5+ years or so). So I didn't want to buy a phone and have MS bail on me a year or two in.
  
  --
  SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
3. Re:2+ million does not seem like dead... by SuperKendall · 2016-05-23 08:02 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I don't even know if niche is quite the right word - if you figure people replacing a phone every two years, selling two million a quarter means a base of something like a 16 million user base! That's a lot of people with a wide range of uses (you would think).
  Would we call any website with 16 million users a niche? Or even any other kind of computer hardware?
  Just because there are a LOT more people using other devices does not have to mean that sixteen million people stop mattering in what they do.
  Now that number may go down over time, but I would have thought the number was a tenth that already - at this point it sure seems like anyone inclined to move away from Windows Mobile would have already.
  
  --
  "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
4. Re:2+ million does not seem like dead... by The-Ixian · 2016-05-23 08:07 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I currently have a Nokia 920 running Windows Phone 10 insider.
  It has been working like a champ for a long time. I think the Windows mobile UI is very elegant and not prone to clutter.
  I have thought about going to Google or Apple but neither choice appeals to me very much. As long as the phone continues to work I will keep it. However, my next phone... I don't know... perhaps Ubuntu...
  
  --
  My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
5. Re:2+ million does not seem like dead... by StormReaver · 2016-05-23 08:32 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Maybe this will be the year of Windows on mobile.
6. Re:2+ million does not seem like dead... by DogDude · 2016-05-23 08:38 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  You bought a GOOGLE product because of MICROSOFT's history of abandoning projects?? Are you from an alternate, bizarro universe, by any chance? In this plane of existence, MS is known for supporting it's products for very long times, and Google is known for dumping projects with alarming frequency and rapidity.
  
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7. Re:2+ million does not seem like dead... by LWATCDR · 2016-05-23 08:40 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  I had a windows phone for a while and it really was not bad.
  I had a super cheap Lumia and it was still a good device. The OS was also really good.and was very responsive.
  The problem that WindowsPhone had for me is the same problem that Linux on the desktop and OS/X has.
  I could not get the applications I wanted to use on the platform.
  People are not going to write apps until you have enough users. You will not have a lot of users until you have the apps.
  The lack of Google apps for Windows phone was a real issue for me.
  If you look at how it breaks down it is really interesting IMHO.
  1. IOS has all the Apple, Google, and Microsoft apps.
  2. Android has all the Google and Microsoft apps.
  3. WindowsPhone has the Microsoft apps.
  Frankly I think it is a real shame because Windows Phone is a good OS and the Lumia phones are good hardware. If Microsoft can help Intel get x86 mobile SOCs on the market or get developers to compile Windows Desktop Apps for ARM, or Microsoft can create a really good X86 to ARM JIT then the unified OS project might really pay off.
  
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8. Re:2+ million does not seem like dead... by DogDude · 2016-05-23 08:40 · Score: 2
  
  You're upset over a Windows Phone version that hasn't been released yet...? I'm confused. Windows Phone 10 hasn't been pushed out to any Windows Phones at all, from what I understand. It's just comes with one model of a new Nokia phone.
  
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  I don't respond to AC's.
9. Re:2+ million does not seem like dead... by DarkOx · 2016-05-23 08:41 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Right but where ecosystems are concerned its really all about the size of the pie slice.
  If the ecosystem is highly fractured and you are a developer you will want to write the most cross platform-least-common-denominator thing you can so that you have a broad enough customer base to make it worth the time.
  When the ecosystem gets a down to a few players you start doing a version for each. When one of the "big three" is only a percentage or so, well you have enough revenue for the next big two that your probably just ignore that part of the market. Its a death spiral situation, from there on out. Application developers stop supplying for the also ran people quite buying them, the market segment gets smaller still, more devs end support/supply....
  
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10. Re:2+ million does not seem like dead... by MightyMartian · 2016-05-23 09:18 · Score: 2
  
  It seems like a lot, but is it really? Considering the costs of developing these devices, and the amount of work Microsoft has put into developing yet another iteration of its seemingly endless family of mobile operating systems, it strikes me that shipping just a fraction of the number of phones your competitors can manage, to the point that it's likely Microsoft's "Android tax" probably generates more revenue, is not sustainable.
  Blackberry is literally going down the tubes, and for of that time in its collapse in market share, it was selling somewhere in the same range Microsoft is (BB has now dropped down to something like 600,000 units per quarter, which is basically extinction level sales).
  Since the trend for Windows phones is downward, even if they're making money right now, even the medium term outlook looks poor. Considering the amount of marketing that was done, if they couldn't even make a dent in the Android-iOS hegemony, then it raises the question as to why continue supporting the mobile platform at all. Surely at 2 million units per quarter the penetration is too low to make Microsoft's own software ecosystem viable, and really, that's the whole point of any mobile device nowadays.
  Even MS seems to realize this, and is targeting more of its development at the major mobile platforms. I suspect within a year or two it will arrive at the same place Blackberry is, conceding that its hardware platform is finished, and likely move to push more of its software on to the dominant mobile platforms.
  
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11. Re:2+ million does not seem like dead... by Grishnakh · 2016-05-23 09:27 · Score: 2
  
  It depends on how much your company is spending going after that market, on development costs, on ongoing costs to maintain your products in that market and service those customers, etc.
  If you have a niche product with 16M users, and you're some smallish company and this userbase is giving you a handsome profit, then great.
  When you're a behemoth company like MS trying to compete in a huge market against entrenched players, and you're spending billions of dollars trying to stay in this market, then no, 16M users is not enough unless you've figured out a way of getting every user to somehow generate ~$1000 per year in profit for you. There's no way that MS is getting that kind of profit from WinPhone users.
12. Re:2+ million does not seem like dead... by bobf0648 · 2016-05-23 13:01 · Score: 2
  
  I have several Window phones, as well as Apple and Android, and I like the Window phones the best. BUT ..... if you need a whole bunch of aps....not so good.
YO by blackomegax · 2016-05-23 07:26 · Score: 3, Funny

2016 is the year of Windows Mobile! Let's make this thing happen!
1. Re:YO by Austerity+Empowers · 2016-05-23 07:50 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  No problem, I just threw it across the room. It was very mobile for a few seconds, then it crashed. Windows Mobile died as it lived.
Re:Ass-rape by The+Grim+Reefer · 2016-05-23 07:33 · Score: 5, Funny

I'd rather be ass-raped with a dildo covered in fish hooks than use Windows on my phone.
I admire your resolve. But given a choice between the two, Windows phone sounds pretty good to me.
Turned Win7 into Win 8 for 1% by TheMadTopher · 2016-05-23 07:34 · Score: 5, Interesting

You turned your flagship OS into the worst interface so you'd have UI compatibility for that 1% of the phone market. Good job MS.
Re:Get rid of iPhones, too by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · 2016-05-23 07:42 · Score: 2

If all that's left is Android then I'm going back to a dumb flip-phone.
Re:Gartner is confused by jfdavis668 · 2016-05-23 07:45 · Score: 2

Very few people refer to it as Windows 10 Mobile. Even users of Windows 10 Mobile call it Windows Phone.
Re:3rd Party Developers by T.E.D. · 2016-05-23 07:51 · Score: 4, Insightful

No, that's the biggest symptom. But Android was new once too. It got past that because it was the most open platform available. Open is better for developers because the barriers to entry are lower. Open is better for buyers because all the competition keeps their prices lower.
The biggest problem with Windows Phone is that they are trying to fight an established competitor with no new genre-busting capabilities and a less Open product.
Re:Ass-rape by drinkypoo · 2016-05-23 07:52 · Score: 4, Funny

I'd rather be ass-raped with a dildo covered in fish hooks than use Windows on my phone.
I admire your resolve. But given a choice between the two, Windows phone sounds pretty good to me.
the dildo won't send your credit card info to hackers
you can cancel your credit card. if you cancel your asshole you have to shit in a bag

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Microsoft, do this: by emil · 2016-05-23 07:53 · Score: 5, Interesting

We know that the NT kernel developed by Dave Cutler has a POSIX emulation layer. This kernel runs the Windows app store, and it's perfectly capable of running Dalivk/ART in a variety of configurations - it does so already with Bluestacks and Google's emulators.
Take the NT kernel, and use it to replace Linux, leaving the Android userland as intact as possible.
To this "windroid," add the required javascript execution layers to allow the Windows app store to run on the same platform.
(Re)implement all of the extensions for Dalvik that are provided by Google services.
Reissue Windows phone as a unified Dalvik/Javascript mobile app platform, allowing Play apps to seamlessly move to the Windows store. Maintain enough control over the platform to provide security patches, and "windroid" could fix many update problems that Google seems incapable of addressing.
The NT kernel exists because it was able to mimic ms-dos. It could do so again with Linux.
1. Re:Microsoft, do this: by emil · 2016-05-23 08:49 · Score: 2
  
  The NT Kernel has far fewer security advisories than does Linux. It was more carefully planned, it is far more successful on the desktop, and the complete code has already leaked for those who really cannot resist seeing the source.
  Microsoft's normal pattern is embrace-extend-extinguish. Android's BSD userland is uniquely vulnerable to this, and any action that Microsoft takes will likely improve general OS security, even if the data mining ramps up.
2. Re:Microsoft, do this: by JustNiz · 2016-05-23 09:09 · Score: 2
  
  >> The NT Kernel has far fewer security advisories than does Linux.
  Sure because Microsoft doesn't make them public very often, whereas all of Linux's dirty laundry is open for all to see.
  >> It was more carefully planned,
  Thats just ridiculous. Consider how much effort, (even just in broad brush terms of numbers of engineers, different companies and universities are working on it) hav gone into developing Unix, and are continuously happening on the Linux kernel, compared to NT kernel.
  >> it is far more successful on the desktop. ... and hardly even on the radar for servers... I would also argue its only popular on the desktop as a result of monopolistic practices and marketing rather than actual merit.
  >> the complete code has already leaked
  illegally leaked at one point in time is not even close to the same as "current information" and "freely available"
  >> any action that Microsoft takes will likely improve general OS security, even if the data mining ramps up.
  History does not back up either of your points.
Billion is bigger than million by raymorris · 2016-05-23 08:09 · Score: 3, Insightful

> if you are selling eight million of something per year you can probably keep doing that indefinitely if you wish.
Not when you're spending BILLIONS and selling MILLIONS. Just Nokia alone cost Microsoft $7.9 billion. They officially asmitted that 95% of that was wasted money when they took a $7.6 billion charge against their assets. The total cost of their mobile efforts is of course a lot higher. When you spend $30 million to make a few million back, you're in trouble.
Re:Get rid of iPhones, too by amiga3D · 2016-05-23 08:13 · Score: 4, Insightful

I had a flip phone for a long time. A simple tracphone that was indestructable. I still have it in a drawer but sadly I was seduced by a quadcore arm processor with a 1080p screen and 4g LTE data. I stuck a 64gb card in it and I have endless entertainment everywhere I go. I can sit for hours now in a hospital emergency waiting room and never be bored. Fuck, I hardly ever call anyone, it's a portable computer that makes calls occasionally.
In the same way Blackberry is not dead. by edxwelch · 2016-05-23 09:05 · Score: 2

Windows phone now has the same market share as Blackberry.
Re:Me too! by hey! · 2016-05-23 09:09 · Score: 2

We're all unique rebels here.

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Re:Me too! by Anonymous Coward · 2016-05-23 09:16 · Score: 2, Funny

I'm not.