Windows Phone - Fading into Obscurity - Update
The numbers are in for 2014 and Windows Phone has not fared very well. In all but two major markets (Germany & Australia) Windows Phone lost market share.
According to Kantar World Panel - in the US Windows Phone share dropped from 4.6% to 3.0% an over 30% drop. The big gainer in Q3 and Q4 was Apple with a 4.3% increase from 43.1 to 46.4%. The iPhone 6/6Plus was a huge hit (in fact I bought one).
I blame this drop purely on MS's poor execution and fractional release of their fall product line up. In the US only 1 of their new phones - the 830 was made available and on only 1 carrier AT&T. Additionally the phone was way overpriced @ $499. The one device that seemed very promising - the 735 - did not even make the market as it was delayed by Verizon and not available on any other US carrier. I was able to purchase an unlocked NA LTE version that works fine on TMO or AT&T for $299.
According to AdDulpex as of December - the new 830 does not even register on their chart of US Windows Phones - showing it's poor market performance. The only change in December as I predicted is with the 630/635 released in July, replacing the now almost 2 year old 520/521 devices. Basically a wash in market share.
In addition - the way that MS promoted those devices was to basically give them away. For example when the 635 was introduced - it was priced @ $169. I bought it 60 days later for $129 and over the holidays - it dropped to as low as $49. This shows the lack of confidence that the carriers have in Windows Phone and the deep discount necessary for it to survive at all. When the carriers can sell iPhones and Android platforms at full price - why would they ever want to continue with Windows Phone ?
Along with that is Microsoft's simply horrible support for their existing user base. The slow release of the Denim firmware package is a perfect example. The Denim firmware was announced on Sept 4, 2014 and it has yet to be deployed to existing devices in the US. When compared to how Apple supports their users Microsoft's execution is just a joke.
The resources of MS are now focused on Windows 10 - and I suspect that there will be very little support for WP8 and 8.1 going forward. And while there are rumors of a new 940 device that will be announced on Jan 21 with the consumer tech preview of Windows 10. Even if that is true - the device will probably not be available until Windows 10 release - sometime this fall - so 9 months away.
That will just happen to coincide with Apple's iPhone 6s release plus new devices from the Android group Samsung/LG/Asus/Moto/etc. So very stiff competition.
I addition while MS has promised that many current WP8/8.1 devices will support Windows 10 - looking at the leaked specs of the 940 - which includes 3GB of RAM - some 3 to 6 times more that most WP devices is that while you may be able to run it - your performance will be horrible and I bet many features will only be available on the new gen devices.
As a actual buyer and user of Windows Phone, this poor level of execution is really disappointing. While I feel there are many features and capabilities of Windows Phone that are superior to iPhone, it's irrelevant if MS can't drive enough interest in the device to generate sufficient market share. 3% just ain't cutting it.
It surprises me to no end that MS seems to have no sense of urgency or concern over the state of Windows Phone in the market place. As long as Microsoft continues to treat Windows Phone as a "me too" product - it will continue to flounder at the bottom of the market and MS will never gain prevalence in the global mobile marketplace.
According to Kantar World Panel - in the US Windows Phone share dropped from 4.6% to 3.0% an over 30% drop. The big gainer in Q3 and Q4 was Apple with a 4.3% increase from 43.1 to 46.4%. The iPhone 6/6Plus was a huge hit (in fact I bought one).
I blame this drop purely on MS's poor execution and fractional release of their fall product line up. In the US only 1 of their new phones - the 830 was made available and on only 1 carrier AT&T. Additionally the phone was way overpriced @ $499. The one device that seemed very promising - the 735 - did not even make the market as it was delayed by Verizon and not available on any other US carrier. I was able to purchase an unlocked NA LTE version that works fine on TMO or AT&T for $299.
According to AdDulpex as of December - the new 830 does not even register on their chart of US Windows Phones - showing it's poor market performance. The only change in December as I predicted is with the 630/635 released in July, replacing the now almost 2 year old 520/521 devices. Basically a wash in market share.
In addition - the way that MS promoted those devices was to basically give them away. For example when the 635 was introduced - it was priced @ $169. I bought it 60 days later for $129 and over the holidays - it dropped to as low as $49. This shows the lack of confidence that the carriers have in Windows Phone and the deep discount necessary for it to survive at all. When the carriers can sell iPhones and Android platforms at full price - why would they ever want to continue with Windows Phone ?
Along with that is Microsoft's simply horrible support for their existing user base. The slow release of the Denim firmware package is a perfect example. The Denim firmware was announced on Sept 4, 2014 and it has yet to be deployed to existing devices in the US. When compared to how Apple supports their users Microsoft's execution is just a joke.
The resources of MS are now focused on Windows 10 - and I suspect that there will be very little support for WP8 and 8.1 going forward. And while there are rumors of a new 940 device that will be announced on Jan 21 with the consumer tech preview of Windows 10. Even if that is true - the device will probably not be available until Windows 10 release - sometime this fall - so 9 months away.
That will just happen to coincide with Apple's iPhone 6s release plus new devices from the Android group Samsung/LG/Asus/Moto/etc. So very stiff competition.
I addition while MS has promised that many current WP8/8.1 devices will support Windows 10 - looking at the leaked specs of the 940 - which includes 3GB of RAM - some 3 to 6 times more that most WP devices is that while you may be able to run it - your performance will be horrible and I bet many features will only be available on the new gen devices.
As a actual buyer and user of Windows Phone, this poor level of execution is really disappointing. While I feel there are many features and capabilities of Windows Phone that are superior to iPhone, it's irrelevant if MS can't drive enough interest in the device to generate sufficient market share. 3% just ain't cutting it.
It surprises me to no end that MS seems to have no sense of urgency or concern over the state of Windows Phone in the market place. As long as Microsoft continues to treat Windows Phone as a "me too" product - it will continue to flounder at the bottom of the market and MS will never gain prevalence in the global mobile marketplace.
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