Windows Phone gains more market share as smartphone prices plunge



These are the latest worldwide smartphone shipping figures from respected analysts IDC.

Nothing much has changed in the top-lines, with Android and Apple accounting for nearly 94% of shipments and Windows Phone in a very lowly third place at 3%.

But that 3% in Q4 last year is up from 2.6% in the same quarter the year before...that's a year-on-year change of 46.7%.

Despite that, Microsoft is still struggling to get a viable foothold in the smartphone market more than three years after launching Windows Phone. Publicly, Redmond is pledging that its newly-purchased Nokia division will continue to use Windows Phone. Privately, it's known that a switch to Android is being considered with WP being left abandoned on the wayside.

Overall trends in smartphone sales are interesting. The biggest rise in shipments is among cheaper handsets. The average price of a smartphone has now dropped to something just more than $300 - way down from the $700 figure a few years ago.

Manufacturers producing Android-powered phones have realised this and are concentrating on more entry-level devices. A good example is the Motorola Moto G, which probably fits into the lower mid-range category but in many respects is hard to distinguish from much more expensive high-end devices.

Microsoft too is catering for the entry-level market...the biggest selling WP phone is Nokia's cheapest Lumia device, the 520.

But one manufacturer is refusing to follow the trend: Apple still only produces high-end devices for its iOS operating system. It's a strategy that still seems to be paying off for Cupertino...but some experts are warning it won't last.

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