Kantar WorldPanel have released their latest numbers for the market share of different mobile operating systems in key markets across the globe. And to be honest, the numbers doesn’t look promising for Microsoft’s mobile operating system, which is struggling to gain market share in many markets.
The report from the market research firms mentions that Android’s steady growth continues in the US and Europe with 59 and 71 percent respectively. The same cannot be said for iOS and Windows Phone as both declined in major markets, except China where iOS saw a 5.6 percent growth compared to the same quarter last year.
“Now more than ever it is interesting to highlight the difference in performance of iOS versus Apple. As a vendor, Apple was able to return to the top of the leader boards in the U.S. and China, while iOS has struggled to return to the market share it saw in 2014 across a number of markets, especially in the U.S.,” reported Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
As for Windows Phone, the operating system did see some improvement in a few European countries. Overall, Europe’s five big markets, including Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, saw a decline of 1.8 percent, but the operating system’s market share improved in the UK — not so much in other big five European countries.
In the US, Windows Phone’s market share declined by 2.2 percent, while Australia saw a bigger fall of 2.9 percent. There was no change in its market share in Japan, while the operating system saw a negligible increase in China, compared to December 2014. Even if we compare it to November’s 2015 statistics, the operating system declined in most markets which is definitely not a good news for Microsoft.
The company hoped Windows 10 Mobile will improve things for Microsoft, but it doesn’t seem like it at the moment. It’s not going to improve until Microsoft has more company’s manufacturing Windows Phone devices, as well as the app gap.
