The latest report for the mobile operating system usage from Kantar, a UK-based market research company is out, and we are afraid it won’t please folks at Redmond. According to the stats from Kantar, the already dwindling market share of Windows Phone has slumped even further across different regions around the world. The report takes in the three months ending November 2014 for consideration.
Starting with United States, the Windows Phone market share has fallen from 4.3 percent it had in the same period a year ago to 3 percent. European countries also saw a similar trend, where the share dropped from 9.8 percent to 8.3 percent. The biggest downfall, however, was seen in China, where the market share of Microsoft’s mobile operating system handsets fell from 2.7 percent to 0.6 percent. Similarly, Great Britain also saw the share falling from 10.6 to 7.0, while France observed a fall from 12.9 to 9.8.
Among the places that did see a positive spark in the numbers include Australia, where the share rose from 6.9 percent from November 2013, to 8. Germany also noted a rise from 5.7 percent to 7.1 percent. The report didn’t provide stats for developing nations like India, where Windows Phone is the second most popular mobile operating system among users.
Since the time period of the report, Microsoft hasn’t launched many handsets, and it seems unlikely that its share would have dramatically improved anyway. But things could change with Windows 10 for mobile, as it may help the company attract new users.
Microsoft rolled out a major update to the platform last year with Windows Phone 8.1, which despite being a point update brought in a plethora of handy and much-needed features. The company has since added another few handful of features, and has also launched several affordable handsets.
We will know more on January 21, when the company will be talking about next chapter of Windows 10. According to reports, the company will also demonstrate the first mobile SKU of Windows 10 at the event.
Further reading: Android, Apple, Google, iOS, Kantar, Market Share, Microsoft, Windows Phone
