Say what you like about my Windows Phone tirade, it’s all sadly true. Call it what you want – Windows 10 mobile, Windows Phone, I’m angry at how easily Microsoft let their lead slip. I’m annoyed at how slowly they realised. I’m frustrated at how they treated the early adopters buying into Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 8 and now Windows 10 mobile – an OS which isn’t really getting the developer support from Microsoft I’d expect.
The downward spiral of the mobile OS appears now to be accelerating. It’s only a few weeks since we saw the last market share figures, courtesy of Kantar. Now Microsoft themselves have published their quarterly earnings and, like the recently announced Google figures, things are looking weaker than expected overall. In terms of mobile devices though, it’s painful reading. Microsoft are seeing their marginal market share die off with speed.
The total device revenue is down 9%, with a massive 46% drop in phone revenue.
Putting that into perspective, let’s go back 12 months. Microsoft shifted 8.6 million Lumia handsets in the 2015 quarter.
This year, just 2.3 million.
That’s a massive 73% drop.
Drink that in for a minute.
How many other companies make Windows Phones or Microsoft 10 phones in any real quantities? Microsoft are the major driver of Microsoft phones, and they’ve just seen a 73% drop in Lumia sales.
Here in Europe the market share was growing in certain areas and reaching a quite respectable set of figures, but things are now firmly in reverse.
As for other areas of the business, there was some slightly better news. Surface revenue is up 56%, Xbox Live users are up year-on-year to 46 million and search revenue grew 18%.
Goodbye Windows Phone. Goodbye to a Microsoft OS on your smartphone.
Microsoft, however, still faces other challenges. They can no longer rely on desktop computers, as home users in particular abandon the traditional PC and laptop in favour of tablets and phones – areas where the company is by no means a big player.