The company is backing away from Android and doubling down on its own smartphone OS just when the smart move seems to be to surrender.
It's been nearly four years since Microsoft first released Windows Phone, and what it has gotten after many millions of dollars in development and marketing costs, plus its $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia, is this: a worldwide smartphone market share of less than 3 percent. And that number has been going down, not up.
Ask any smart businessperson whether that investment is a good one, and you'll get a straightforward answer: no. Over at Microsoft, though, they think differently. Rather than abandoning Windows Phone, they're doubling down and making an even bigger bet on the struggling smartphone operating system. A company with Bill Gates' DNA will never willingly admit defeat, but in this case it may be time to do just that and instead hitch its mobile wagon to Android.
[ Also on InfoWorld: Find out how to make sense of your mobile management options without diluting the benefits of consumerization. | iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or other? Whatever you prefer, subscribe to InfoWorld's Mobilize newsletter for the latest developments. ]
The numbers explain why this might be the best option at this point. They're not pretty. The latest figures from Strategy Analytics show Windows Phone with only a 2.7 percent worldwide share of the smartphone market in the second quarter of 2014, compared to an 84.6 percent market share for Android and 11.9 percent for iOS. That 2.7 percent figure is down from 3.8 percent a year earlier. And even that understates how badly Windows Phone is doing. In the second quarter of 2014, shipments of all smartphones were up 27 percent compared to a year previous -- but Windows Phone shipments fell in that year, from 8.9 million devices in the second quarter of 2013 to 8 million devices in the second quarter of 2014.
Windows Phone is struggling in the world's two largest smartphone markets, the U.S. and China. For May, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech found, its market share was 3.8 percent in the U.S., down from 4.7 percent a year previously. And in China, it was a barely measurable 0.6 percent, compared to 3 percent a year earlier.
By any measure, Windows Phone has been headed in the wrong direction. Earlier this year, Microsoft seemed poised to adopt a backup plan that would keep it in the mobile game even as Windows Phone tanks. As it was preparing to acquire Nokia, the handset maker released a line of low-end Android phones called the Nokia X, aimed at the developing world. Though the phones don't run a Microsoft OS, they do carry Microsoft services, such as Skype, Outlook.com and OneDrive. That would allow Microsoft to make money on the services the phones carry, in the same way that Google makes money on any of its services that other Android phones carry.
Nokia was still ostensibly an independent company at the time, but is it possible that it decided to release Android phones without the blessing of its soon-to-be owner, Microsoft? That doesn't seem likely. And it's worth noting that after the acquisition was finalized, Nokia released a new generation of the phones, the X2. It looked like a smart move, given those disastrous Windows Phone numbers.
It's been nearly four years since Microsoft first released Windows Phone, and what it has gotten after many millions of dollars in development and marketing costs, plus its $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia, is this: a worldwide smartphone market share of less than 3 percent. And that number has been going down, not up.
Ask any smart businessperson whether that investment is a good one, and you'll get a straightforward answer: no. Over at Microsoft, though, they think differently. Rather than abandoning Windows Phone, they're doubling down and making an even bigger bet on the struggling smartphone operating system. A company with Bill Gates' DNA will never willingly admit defeat, but in this case it may be time to do just that and instead hitch its mobile wagon to Android.
[ Also on InfoWorld: Find out how to make sense of your mobile management options without diluting the benefits of consumerization. | iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or other? Whatever you prefer, subscribe to InfoWorld's Mobilize newsletter for the latest developments. ]
The numbers explain why this might be the best option at this point. They're not pretty. The latest figures from Strategy Analytics show Windows Phone with only a 2.7 percent worldwide share of the smartphone market in the second quarter of 2014, compared to an 84.6 percent market share for Android and 11.9 percent for iOS. That 2.7 percent figure is down from 3.8 percent a year earlier. And even that understates how badly Windows Phone is doing. In the second quarter of 2014, shipments of all smartphones were up 27 percent compared to a year previous -- but Windows Phone shipments fell in that year, from 8.9 million devices in the second quarter of 2013 to 8 million devices in the second quarter of 2014.
Windows Phone is struggling in the world's two largest smartphone markets, the U.S. and China. For May, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech found, its market share was 3.8 percent in the U.S., down from 4.7 percent a year previously. And in China, it was a barely measurable 0.6 percent, compared to 3 percent a year earlier.
By any measure, Windows Phone has been headed in the wrong direction. Earlier this year, Microsoft seemed poised to adopt a backup plan that would keep it in the mobile game even as Windows Phone tanks. As it was preparing to acquire Nokia, the handset maker released a line of low-end Android phones called the Nokia X, aimed at the developing world. Though the phones don't run a Microsoft OS, they do carry Microsoft services, such as Skype, Outlook.com and OneDrive. That would allow Microsoft to make money on the services the phones carry, in the same way that Google makes money on any of its services that other Android phones carry.
Nokia was still ostensibly an independent company at the time, but is it possible that it decided to release Android phones without the blessing of its soon-to-be owner, Microsoft? That doesn't seem likely. And it's worth noting that after the acquisition was finalized, Nokia released a new generation of the phones, the X2. It looked like a smart move, given those disastrous Windows Phone numbers.
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