Windows Phone market share increased in some markets globally in Q4 of 2014 according to the research firm Kantar. The numbers, which make up the last three months of 2014 and are based on phone activations, saw the share go up France, Germany and Australia while the United States, United Kingdom, Italy and Spain all saw Windows Phone share drop. Overall, the global market share of Windows Phone is at about 2.28% globally according to Net Market Share, which is pretty dismal no matter how you try to spin it.
Windows 10 can’t come fast enough.
According to Kantar, Windows Phone year-over-year growth in Q4 several countries.
- France went up from 11.4% to 11.6%
- Germany went up from 5.9% to 7.4%
- Australia went up from 5.2% to 9.2%
On the flip side, the following countries saw a decline when comparing Q4 2013 to Q4 2014
- United Kingdom went down from 11.3% to 6.6%
- Spain went down from 5.6% to 3.8%
- Italy went down from 17.1% to 12.7%
- United States went down from 4.3% to 3.8%
Interestingly, when comparing the numbers, Android dropped in every country with the exception of Italy while iOS gained in every marking including Italy. iOS 8.1 and the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have given Apple a huge push in every market and in fact their iPhone business alone is bigger than all of Microsoft.
That’s the task Microsoft has at hand and Obi Wan, their only hope is Windows 10.
Still, there is some positives to take from these numbers. I’ll refer back to Net Market Share’s data which points to the fact that Windows Phone in March 2014 had a mere .69% of the global market share. In January 2015, that’s up to 2.25%. Not fantastic I agree but certainly going in the right direction.
Microsoft has a big bet going on with Windows 10 and the new universal app platform that is coming with it for developers should see Windows Phone gain a significant share in 2015.
