“As global smartphone shipments hit a historic high of 301.3 million in the second quarter, the third-ranked operating system, Microsoft’s Windows Phone, saw its share of that pie stumble to well below 3%,” Matt Hamblen reports for Computerworld.
“Windows Phone-based devices have been shipping for four years, but they accounted for only 2.5% of the total smartphone market in the second quarter of 2014, down from 3.4% in the same period a year earlier, IDC reported Thursday,” Hamblen reports. “Overall Windows Phone shipments for the second quarter totaled about 7.4 million, down 9.4% from 8.2 million a year earlier, IDC said.”
“Shipments of Apple’s iPhone grew by 12.7% to 35.2 million,” Hamblen reports. “A recent Good Technology report found that Windows Phone was used in only 1% of 5,000 enterprises surveyed in the second quarter. In comparison, iPhones and iPads were used in 67% of enterprises… The 2.5% Windows Phone Q2 market share reported by IDC was even lower than the 2.7% share reported by Strategy Analytics. IDC’s count of 7.4 million Windows Phones shipped was also less than the 8 million Strategy Analytics tallied.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Verily, rounding error territory doth approacheth.
Related articles:
Ballmer: Apple’s Mac is ‘expensive,’ Safari browser market share is a ‘rounding error’ – September 29, 2009
Steve Ballmer calls Apple’s Mac market share growth a ‘rounding error’ – July 31, 2009
I still Microsoft’s plan. I like it a lot!
Microsoft’s plan of controlling all software is starting to crack and fall apart because they want it all … and can’t control all of their projects anymore.
The recent Black screens and BSODs with the latest Windows Update are further evidence.
Time to break up MS, but they won’t do it until the shareholders revolt.
I’d like to know ONE consumer project they control well (and I don’t mean like Balmer riding the bomb). I can think of some M$ shareholders that ARE revolting. Can you? 🙂
I never tire of reading yet more Microsoft failure related headlines. It’s a weakness I know but it sure feels nice.
It may be a weakness, but only in the sense of being a guilty pleasure, a rare indulgence, a ticket to the beheading, an excusable extravagance in a world of moral condemnation at the slightest social infraction, a squirm of relief from the slowly enclosing Iron Maiden of Life.
Who once were princes, are now become toads. 🙂
Bravo! Well said!
Very well said, but please note that these are no longer rare indulgences, but regular instances of a loud backhand across the face of a backwards GUI.
Uh oh. Time to stuff the channels!
Aren’t these the guys who predicted Windows Phone shipments would surpass iPhone shipments by 2016? I guess they’d better get a move on…
Lol, I remember that too. Maybe once the direction has reversed they’ll succeed. 🙂
“Aren’t these the guys who predicted Windows Phone shipments would surpass iPhone shipments by 2016?”
They actually predicted that WP shipments would surpass iPhone shipments by 2015. It’s a pretty good rule to ignore all IDC reports/predictions…
So that iPhone funeral with the coffin, that was for their own phone?
I think that ‘sales’ of Windoze phones reflects those bought by M$ for their employees; who else would buy a ‘dozer’ phone?
According to predictions
Windows Phone is supposed to be ahead of iPhone/iOS by next year. It was funny back in 2011, and even funnier now. So much for “industry expertise” from the “analysts”… 🙂
Ken – thanks for providing those links. I remember reading them back-when, and thought they were delusional.
It’s kind of interesting (or suspicious) in retrospect. Both of those predictions from well-known analysis firms came out about one week apart, both with Microsoft’s Windows Phone market share at about 20% by 2015. A prediction that sounded “delusional” to anyone with common sense, because the trend in 2011 was for Windows Phone to be GONE by 2015.
Microsoft perhaps wrote them (and probably others) a check to make that “prediction” and (try to) make it sound plausible, as a way to get enterprise customers (who read such reports) interested in deploying Windows Phone.
The strategy of buying market share intelligence to influence sales peaked in the 1990s and died back after antitrust lawsuits. That was followed by the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) model of market tampering which continues unregulated to this day, both in market-speak and in trading lingo.
Undoubtedly there are many unheralded market grabbing techniques still being employed in these tech dollar wars. The main one these days seems to be analysis-for-hire. One might suppose that a reliable and straightforward way of increasing sales would be to produce compelling advertisements, which psychologically appeal directly to the consumer; but if what you’re promoting is crap, you’d need to be brilliant at it. Payola is cheaper.
Most Anal-cysts need to get officially into comedy writing since everything they write now is pretty much a joke.
The “Units shipped” measure is misleading
What about actual sales?
I am surprised that they sold that many.
That’s exactly what I was thinking! I didn’t post earlier because I figured people would think I was being facetious.
If Windows Phone is so good, then how come I have yet to see anyone use it in real life? More importantly, how come every phone I see in real life is either an Android, or a Sammy iDroid rip off? Maybe no one wants M$ on their phones?
Microsoft pooh-poohed the iPhone for its lack of physical keyboard (amongst other instant anachronisms), as did Research in Motion and others. A combination of wishful thinking, misdirection, decrepit R&D, and stalling for time resulted in dreadful initial answers to iPhone. Every company suffered from these handicaps as they raced to compete with this new industry standard. By the time any of the companies had credible contenders, only Android had obtained a foothold because they alone had moved quickly to model their product after Apple’s.
That’s why today the common flora and fauna are Apple and its doppelgänger Android. The others adapted but arrived too late to do much in the way of reproduction, and they may be endangered species.
Maybe M¢ will switch to android OS.
“because they alone had moved quickly to model their product after Apple’s.”
– because they alone had moved quickly to
model their product aftercopy Apple’s product.Fixed your typo, HJS. 😆
Plus the fact that the iPhone was only available on one carrier for too long.
What about the funeral Microsoft held for Apple’s iPhone? Should they bury Windows Phone instead?
That funeral was also for BlackBerry so at least they were half right.
read the comments in ZDnet, gizmodo etc blogs, Windows fans keep harping there’s no advantage to iOS as there are ‘hundreds of thousands’ of Windows phone apps.
Msft knows it’s users, they are easily fooled…
Which is one reason they did it, despicable and underhanded as it gets: deluding your own loyal fan base in order to gain traction in a market. Microsoft are nothing if not crass and shameless carnival barkers for whom every customer is a mark, to be hornswoggled again and again. Add to it the enticement of rubbing the opponent’s face in excrement, and you have Microsoft’s repulsive stealth marketing strategy. Step right up, loyal Microsoft fans! Three chances to hurl the baseball and dunk the hapless Apple user into a tub of hubris, to a chorus of raucous cheers!
I hope your day job includes writing.
Not exactly, but every time I hear mention of Microsoft or Steve Ballmer, I seem to hear the mocking trill of a calliope and the sound of crashing chairs. It may just be a mental condition brought about by years of forced labour for one clown show after another.
Your descants are a joy to read.
Indeed! I seek them out specifically (which is a bit of a hassle here on MDN, Since you can’t easily lookup posts of a single user)
It will be fun watching Ballmie as the Clippers frontman. Wait until he starts telling Doc Rivers how to coach; you know he will!
opps.. this post was supposed to be for the ‘Windows store scam’ article.
have too many pages open.
I know how M$ can increase sales of Windoze phones! M$ can buy their own phones back, then give them away free to IT guys and corporate execs. Then IDC could report a new industry trend for Windoze phones. Just wait, it could happen. 🙂
I know, a free Windoze phone with every copy of Windoze 8 sold or licensed. That should increase their sales. Why isn’t M$ marketing coming up with these ideas!? I ‘be got to do all the work for them! 🙂
Won’t work. Nobody buys Windows 8. They are now giving it away for use in cheap *ss PCs. Race to the bottom. HP is releasing a $199 windows 8.1 Chromebook killer. PC industry is eating its young except for Apple.
I guess having a phone and two tablets with mutually incompatible operating systems didn’t work out quite as well as Microsoft had hoped.
Throw in some front row Clippers tickets with every phone!
Hardcore
“Beleaguered” and “Microsoft”—two words concatenated within a sentence I never tire of reading.
=:~)
Thanks for a word I’ve never heard of; I like to learn something new every day.