Windows Phone is known for having good phones for a very low price, but how does the Windows Phone usage share compare to iOS and Android? Not surprisingly iOS is largely made up of high end devices ($400+). Android on the other hand is more divided across price points. Oddly Windows Phone and Android share a very similar pricing structure.
Window Phone has ~60% of its devices as phones priced under $200. Approximately 25% of Windows Phones are between $200 and $400; leaving the remaining 15% as phones costing $400 or more. This should come as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with the Windows Phone portfolio. The most popular Windows Phone is the Lumia 520 which costs only $100 off a contract, and is often on sale for as low as $40 which is probably why the Lumia 520 makes up 30.9% of all Windows Phones. The second most popular Windows Phone is the Lumia 625 which comes in just over $200 off contract. The third most popular Windows Phones is the Lumia 920 commanding 6.5% of Windows Phones and almost half of the high end Windows Phones. Since Windows Phone is only 2.5% of all smartphones a few devices dominate each price tier, the same is not true for Android.
Android’s phones are distributed almost exactly the same as Windows Phones. The vast majority of Android phones on the market are less than $200. These phone probably come free on a contract and act as a first smartphone to get the customer on a data plan. Android does however have a higher percentage of high end phones than Windows Phone; with ~20% Android phones being high end, compared to ~14% of Windows Phones being high end. This could be due to the popularity of the Galaxy S series phones which were heavily pushed by Samsung all over the world. A major difference between Android and Windows Phone is there is no single phone which dominates the low end like the Lumia 520 does. Instead Android is fractured across lots of different devices, and different versions of Android.
Completely different from Android and Windows Phone is iOS. Dominated by high end phones, iOS has no low end market with all devices running iOS being mid range or high end. When Apple was rumored to be releasing a low end phone (which became the iPhone 5c) the tech crowd was excited. People were excited about the prospects of a low end iOS device because most people buying smartphones want a device which costs less than $200. When the iPhone 5c became the rumored ‘low end iPhone’ lots of people were disappointed. Now iOS only commands 11.7% of the entire smartphone market because they refuse to release the phone consumers will buy in bulk. Even with 85% of their phones being high end, Apple shipped 20 million less high end phones than Android in 2014 Q2. This means the iOS has followed in the steps of the Mac by being owned entirely by people concerned with design over the cutting edge.
Why do you think low end Android and Windows Phones are so popular? Do you think it is too late for Apple to gain any traction in the low end? Let us know in the comments below!
Further reading: Android, iOS, Microsoft, Windows Phone
