Windows Phone strategy not working?


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"It is game over for Windows Phone
By Mihaita Bamburic


Microsoft, it is time to reconsider your Windows Phone plans. The tiled smartphone operating system's market share came in at a tiny 2.7 percent in Q2 2014, dropping from the 3.8 percent it claimed in the same period of last year. As a result, Windows Phone saw a 28.94 percent decrease year-over-year in market share, caused by low shipments of only 8.0 million units in the second quarter of the year, 0.9 million units less than in Q2 2013 when its shipments were at the 8.9 million units mark.

The data is from a new report issued by research firm Strategy Analytics, which adds "Windows Phone continued to struggle in the United States and China", the first two largest smartphone markets worldwide. There, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech places the platform at 3.8 percent and 0.9 percent market share, respectively. That is lower than in other markets such as Australia, where Windows Phone was able to reach 5.3 percent market in Q2 2014, as well as some parts of Europe.

Windows Phone was not the only smartphone OS to post market share losses in Q2 2014, as iOS also dropped to 11.9 percent from 13.4 percent and BlackBerry followed suit with a decrease in market share to 0.6 percent from 2.4 percent (in the same respective quarters). In Q2 2014, Apple shipped 35.2 million iPhones, 4 million units more than in Q2 2013. BlackBerry, in contrast, shipped just 1.9 million units, which is 3.8 million units less than in the same period of last year when the Canadian maker shipped 5.7 million units.

Practically, Windows Phone is in the same boat as BlackBerry...."

 

 

Full article: http://betanews.com/2014/07/31/it-is-game-over-for-windows-phone/

 

If numbers are correct, WP is taking a dive. IMHO Microsoft needs pricing adjustment fast for their platform amongst various other things. They simply can't afford to play the game Apple is playing. 

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I love reading all these analysts trying to tell Microsoft what they should and shouldn't do. 8.1 is pretty solid, compared to 8, lets give that some time and see. The reality is that Microsoft joined in on the market when not only Android and iOS were at their peaks, but also now the market as a whole is starting to go flat. Two reasons, people are waiting for Apple for the next iphone and people aren't buying new phones as often.  

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IMO they should just add the flash player with a user controlled whitelist, requiring a separate application for each website who's functionality cant be replicated in html 5 is just dumb.

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I agree that analysts comments can be completely off the mark, but when You see the numbers in what You have called flat year I see WP share dropping for almost 30% compared to a 5% rise for the Android, it is the time for Microsoft to rethink their strategy.

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IMO they should just add the flash player with a user controlled whitelist, requiring a separate application for each website who's functionality cant be replicated in html 5 is just dumb.

Flash on mobile isn't a good idea. 

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The data isn't even marketshare, it's precentage of sales in a quarter. I don't know anyone who equates quarterly sales to current marketshare, this "analyst" has no clue what he's talking about.

 

Quarterly sales will have an effect on marketshare, but it's not marketshare.

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Because apple says so ?

 

It's a battery drain, Adobe discontinued Android support for Flash so its pretty much dead on mobile devices now anyway.

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analysts....meh. 

if they drop windows phone, ms will be sending the wrong message to its core userbase and other consumers who are looking at windows products.  the windows phone allows ms to compete with apple and google with their own solid ecosystem.  if they drop windows phone, they'd be letting go of a key piece of their product line. 

 

I'd rather ms just stick with their guns, keep producing great phones, keep pushing out awesome updates, keep enticing developers to their platforms, and keep going.  I imagine it'll pay off sooner or later. 

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Microsofts problem is they keep making phones specific to a carrier. one example is tmobile doesn't have the 1520, the 1020, or the 930. This cuts a lot of people out of windows phones.

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I think this comment pretty much sums it all up

 

"It is amazing that Microsoft is even around after a number of serious mistakes and a total disregard for the users. Microsoft had 35% of the smartphone market when it abandoned and orphaned WinMo 6.x instead of simply updating the UI (and it needed updating); it then proceeded to abandon and orphan WinPhone 7.x!! After hosing its users twice, one should only approach any Windows Phone device with great caution. Microsoft is already committed to "One Windows", the unification of the code of all Windows versions, which may well mean that the current WinPhone 8.x may well be abandoned and orphaned!!!

WinPhone 7/8 did not fail because it came late to the market. It failed because it was immature, it was not as usable and configurable as competing platforms and it run on rather unremarkable hardware. This continues to be the case today. In fact, when I moved to Android, I gave WinPhone 7.5 a very long trial and found it very unsatisfying and very immature as a platform. It is likely that progress has been made with WinPhone 8.x, but I am not still attracted both to the UI and the overall usability of these phones. I find the whole tile paradigm tiresome, too much scrolling in all directions and too many missing key applications. I will not consider a WinPhone today not because it is not popular (I could not care less) but because it is not as good as the competition. And this is the sad truth."

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I think this comment pretty much sums it all up

 

"It is amazing that Microsoft is even around after a number of serious mistakes and a total disregard for the users. Microsoft had 35% of the smartphone market when it abandoned and orphaned WinMo 6.x instead of simply updating the UI (and it needed updating); it then proceeded to abandon and orphan WinPhone 7.x!! After hosing its users twice, one should only approach any Windows Phone device with great caution. Microsoft is already committed to "One Windows", the unification of the code of all Windows versions, which may well mean that the current WinPhone 8.x may well be abandoned and orphaned!!!

WinPhone 7/8 did not fail because it came late to the market. It failed because it was immature, it was not as usable and configurable as competing platforms and it run on rather unremarkable hardware. This continues to be the case today. In fact, when I moved to Android, I gave WinPhone 7.5 a very long trial and found it very unsatisfying and very immature as a platform. It is likely that progress has been made with WinPhone 8.x, but I am not still attracted both to the UI and the overall usability of these phones. I find the whole tile paradigm tiresome, too much scrolling in all directions and too many missing key applications. I will not consider a WinPhone today not because it is not popular (I could not care less) but because it is not as good as the competition. And this is the sad truth."

 

 

How can you take a comment like this serious, if the author admits that he hasn't used any WP8.x version. So he is complaining about the state of the software and hardware from 2 years ago.

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After reading the article, I felt that it should have been called, "It is game over for Blackberry." I don't really pay attention to market share since the market isn't saturated yet, so it doesn't give you a good idea of the install base, but they did have a huge drop in sales YoY. 

 

Also, didn't Windows Phone have one flagship launch at the end of the quarter? Might explain why the sales are slightly down. It would be interesting to see the YoY sales next quarter once the 930 will have had time to breathe. And Microsoft shouldn't drop Windows Phone or their strategy. The have a solid ecosystem that's shaping up nicely, and it will benifit a lot of people. Even people who don't use Windows Phone. 

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I think this comment pretty much sums it all up

 

"It is amazing that Microsoft is even around after a number of serious mistakes and a total disregard for the users. Microsoft had 35% of the smartphone market when it abandoned and orphaned WinMo 6.x instead of simply updating the UI (and it needed updating); it then proceeded to abandon and orphan WinPhone 7.x!! After hosing its users twice, one should only approach any Windows Phone device with great caution. Microsoft is already committed to "One Windows", the unification of the code of all Windows versions, which may well mean that the current WinPhone 8.x may well be abandoned and orphaned!!!

WinPhone 7/8 did not fail because it came late to the market. It failed because it was immature, it was not as usable and configurable as competing platforms and it run on rather unremarkable hardware. This continues to be the case today. In fact, when I moved to Android, I gave WinPhone 7.5 a very long trial and found it very unsatisfying and very immature as a platform. It is likely that progress has been made with WinPhone 8.x, but I am not still attracted both to the UI and the overall usability of these phones. I find the whole tile paradigm tiresome, too much scrolling in all directions and too many missing key applications. I will not consider a WinPhone today not because it is not popular (I could not care less) but because it is not as good as the competition. And this is the sad truth."

 

 

It's interesting that you feel that quote sums it up for you because all it tells me is that the author doesn't really understand what he's talking about.

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I think this comment pretty much sums it all up

 

"It is amazing that Microsoft is even around after a number of serious mistakes and a total disregard for the users. Microsoft had 35% of the smartphone market when it abandoned and orphaned WinMo 6.x instead of simply updating the UI (and it needed updating); it then proceeded to abandon and orphan WinPhone 7.x!! After hosing its users twice, one should only approach any Windows Phone device with great caution. Microsoft is already committed to "One Windows", the unification of the code of all Windows versions, which may well mean that the current WinPhone 8.x may well be abandoned and orphaned!!!

WinPhone 7/8 did not fail because it came late to the market. It failed because it was immature, it was not as usable and configurable as competing platforms and it run on rather unremarkable hardware. This continues to be the case today. In fact, when I moved to Android, I gave WinPhone 7.5 a very long trial and found it very unsatisfying and very immature as a platform. It is likely that progress has been made with WinPhone 8.x, but I am not still attracted both to the UI and the overall usability of these phones. I find the whole tile paradigm tiresome, too much scrolling in all directions and too many missing key applications. I will not consider a WinPhone today not because it is not popular (I could not care less) but because it is not as good as the competition. And this is the sad truth."

 

 

 

So basically a Windows 6.5 phone won't run Windows Phone 7 so then people upgraded to a phone with Windows Phone 7 and then Windows phone 8 comes out which can't be upgraded on your Windows Phone 7 devices so they are forced again to upgrade.

 

I can understand 6.5 not upgrading to 7 .. because that was some ###### hardware .. but Windows phone 7 to Windows phone 8 ..dafuk?

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Fixed it for ya. Seen flash drop an Ubuntu PC and a Windows PC so treat with care.

Then come up with a way to display live streaming and drm protected content through the browser without plugins because without this flash isn't going anywhere for a long long time!

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Then come up with a way to display live streaming and drm protected content through the browser without plugins because without this flash isn't going anywhere for a long long time!

doesn't netflix manage to do this with html5? i'm pretty sure they do so that problem is pretty much a non issue

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but Windows phone 7 to Windows phone 8 ..dafuk?

Changes in the kernel prevented upgrading. WP7 was a stepping stone.

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Changes in the kernel prevented upgrading. WP7 was a stepping stone.

 

Regardless, probably ###### the consumer off. So now who is going to touch a WP8 / 8.1 phone with a 10 foot pole. They think Microsoft will just abandon them when 9 comes out.

 

yes, android phone manufactures are notorious for Abandoning the users on the version the phone shipped with. But at least Apple gives you at least one major version upgrade.

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Regardless, probably ###### the consumer off. So now who is going to touch a WP8 / 8.1 phone with a 10 foot pole. They think Microsoft will just abandon them when 9 comes out.

 

yes, android phone manufactures are notorious for Abandoning the users on the version the phone shipped with. But at least Apple gives you at least one major version upgrade.

You just killed your own argument in that response.

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You just killed your own argument in that response.

But what about the iPhone which is their 1st or 2nd large competitor. The iPhone 4s is still getting upgraded to iOS 8.

 

The people who bought WP7 devices are probably thinking .. Gee should have went Apple and got a 4s. They have more apps, and they are still getting new iOS versions

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