Microsoft’s U.S. smartphone market share levels out to 5.8% in June

By Tom Warren, on 4th Aug 11 6:05 pm with 39 Comments

The latest figures from comScore show that Microsoft’s U.S. smartphone market share has leveled out in June.

The figures, released by comScore on Thursday, show that Microsoft’s market share has remained at 5.8% in June. ComScore previously reported Microsoft’s market share as 5.8% for May. The stats are a good sign that Microsoft’s market share has stopped bleeding since its Windows Phone 7 launch. The company’s market share has dropped by 35% since Windows Phone 7 devices went on sale in the U.S. during November 2010. The software giant held 9% market share in November 2010 which has since dropped to just 5.8% in June 2011.

  • November 2010: 9%
  • February: 7.7%
  • March: 7.5%
  • May: 5.8%
  • June: 5.8%

Microsoft could be on the brink of turning its fortunes around in the mobile market. The company is banking on Nokia to help it generate significant interest during 2012. IDC predicts Windows Phone 7 will account for over 20% market share, above iOS’s 15% in 2015. The prediction is based on the significant implications of the recent Nokia and Microsoft deal. Nokia is expected to make Windows Phone 7.5 devices available in October alongside competition from Samsung, Acer and HTC.

Microsoft’s application marketplace continues to grow. The software giant recently passed 25,000 applications and is expected to hit 30,000 apps in the next few weeks. Windows Phone 7.5 is expected to be generally available in September or October, following an RTM announcement by the company recently.

Microsoft U.S. smartphone market share - comScore

  • Anonymous

    marketshare doesnt matter right now. WP7 is good in terms of quality. it has a marketing issue with biased salesman, bad carrier advertising and placement, and poor non-effective marketing overall.

    • Anonymous

      I largely agree with everything you said. I also believe that there’s good news in this in that it stopped dropping market share and (hopefully) can only go up once Nokia is in the game. I know I’m buying a Sea Ray.

    • Anonymous

      The 3 phone buttons are onscreen? ? Sorry, no Sea Ray for me.

    • Anonymous

      http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388694,00.asp
      No, they arent on screen at all. Theyre capacitive touch like other WP7 devices

    • Viipottaja

      No, they are almost 100% sure not onscreen – spoken to people who have seen/used Sea Ray protos with 3 hardware keys.

    • Anonymous

      Microsoft should redesign WP to get rid of the need for those 3 hardware buttons.

      All companies are moving to buttonless fronts, Android, MeeGo, there are even rumours of Apple doing something like that.

    • Anonymous

      Microsoft should redesign WP to get rid of the need for those 3 hardware buttons.

      All companies are moving to buttonless fronts, Android, MeeGo, there are even rumours of Apple doing something like that.

    • M$ Hater

      Unbelievable that so many stupids are around here. You support a criminal monopoly and a f… Liar! M$ die die die

    • http://twitter.com/NorrathReaver Shane Nokes

      In order to be a criminal monopoly by definition they would have to have been deemed as such by the courts. There is no such judgment entered into the record.

    • http://twitter.com/oolong2 oolong2

      It’s all good as long as there’s enough marketshare to support it long term.

      A small marketshare just makes you unique .  If everyone had WP7 handsets it wouldn’t be cool anymore ;-)

      Although we all know that more than likely WP7 (or WP8) is bound to take over….

    • Anonymous

      agreed, everytime someone sees my wp7 they are amazed by everything. they cant believe how fast it is, how good it looks, and some of the features blow their mind (integrated facebook, xbox live, zune music UI, Ms Office is also a big hit.)

    • Anonymous

      That is actually wrong, I talked to an O2 rep yesterday and what said is that customers would return a lot of WP7 phones so they simply stopped pushing them.

    • Greyhunter

      Then the salesmen shouldn’t be pushing Android with that logic.  They are returned the most.  I personally have returned 5 android devices due to poor performance and being completely unreliable. (The Droid X and now the Droid X2).  

      Several of my friends have had to return their android devices as well.  My wife doesn’t use her phone that often so She tolerates the random reboots with her Thunderbolt.  The only reason I still have an android device is due to the poor selection of WP7 devices from my carrier (One device: HTC Trophy).

    • Anonymous

      That is actually wrong, I talked to an O2 rep yesterday and what said is that customers would return a lot of WP7 phones so they simply stopped pushing them.

    • Anonymous

      You could have a room full of WP7 phones yet they could all be different hand sets so there’s still a chance for individuality.

    • Tom

      I don’t want to be unique.  It may be cool, but it has a number of disadvantages.  There are a number of apps that are still not available for Windows Phone because of the low market share.  For example: my bank, my brokerage, my preferred airline.  Websites are not equally as good.

      I don’t want to be a Mac user.  And I don’t want to be a Windows Phone user either if it means I’m not in a large enough ecosystem to be self-sustaining.  However, I am willing to give it another year or two to turn around.  Let’s see how Nokia turns out.

    • Anonymous

      Nokia will go back to MeeGo, their WP7 sales will be a disaster.

      There are still a lot of Nokia fans out there but they want Symbian and MeeGo. They don’t want WP7, so they won’t make a jump to it.

    • Anonymous

      There was also an issue with hardware. None of the phones I looked at looked to appealing. Is Nokia going to put out a 4″+ phone? I like the look of those Nokia mockups, but I want a 4″ screen.

    • Joe05

      This is really bad news in a market growing this fast, standing still is falling behind.  MS spent all this time and money to replace an OS that was stalled in the market.  Now if the new updated OS can do any better then they old one the only smart thing is to pull the plug and redirect the resources into something that make money and just sit back and let Android make money for MS. With just the 12m HTC units at $5/unit yields $60m from Android while with WP7 1.4m units at $15/unit yields $21m rev. for Microsoft from Windows Phone in Q2 .   At this rate it is going to take WP7 over 5 and half years just to pay for the original half a billion dollar Ad campaign.  

    • Ron

      If your marketshare in percentage is flat and the market grows, the number of devices you sold has grown equally as fast as the market. Have you ever wondered what Google earns on Android if they’re giving it away for free. This is a long term battle for marketshare in a crucial market. Who cares if entering this market costs a billion dollars when you make a billion dollars in just two weeks..

    • Joe05

      Fact is they are not making a billion $ in two weeks.   You show very little understanding of the real cost of OS development much less the associate cost need to make it succeed.   Despite trying to spin this as good news just look at the chart to see that from march to june we see a 22% drop in market share as another report by IDC stated “demand for its Windows Phone smartphones has cooled off.”   

    • Guest

      Ron there is no talk of growth Microsoft’s share of the smartphone market has fallen 38% (from 8% to 5.8%) since the Windows Phone launch. 

    • Guest

      This report is only for the US, the worse news in Window phone’s global markets share has falling 52 percent to a measly one percent, Canalys reported

  • Anonymous

    It’s gonna be a lot of work but MS should continue on improving and eventually people will take notice.

    • Mina

      I agree. The next release of Tango should come out sooner than later and should offer business and consumer features beyond those of iOS5 and Android. Better integration with Outlook, Windows 7/8 and and AD Domains. It is a Windows Phone it should not rely on Zune software it should work natively with Windows.

    • Mina

      I agree. The next release of Tango should come out sooner than later and should offer business and consumer features beyond those of iOS5 and Android. Better integration with Outlook, Windows 7/8 and and AD Domains. It is a Windows Phone it should not rely on Zune software it should work natively with Windows.

    • Mina

      I agree. The next release of Tango should come out sooner than later and should offer business and consumer features beyond those of iOS5 and Android. Better integration with Outlook, Windows 7/8 and and AD Domains. It is a Windows Phone it should not rely on Zune software it should work natively with Windows.

  • Anonymous

    I just found the Dell Venue Pro at a regional carrier (Cincinnati Bell) Its in no way advertised or mentioned at all. I just happened to notice it as i went in to talk to someone about my fiber optics. They need to make it available on the cheaper networks like that and advertise the hell out of the Mango release otherwise theyll be the next WebOS, amazing product with no users.

  • Anonymous

    I just found the Dell Venue Pro at a regional carrier (Cincinnati Bell) Its in no way advertised or mentioned at all. I just happened to notice it as i went in to talk to someone about my fiber optics. They need to make it available on the cheaper networks like that and advertise the hell out of the Mango release otherwise theyll be the next WebOS, amazing product with no users.

    • GP007

      I fully expect that Mango is the release they’re waiting for to fully advertise WP7, with this update none of the “big name features” are missing compared to the others, so it’s easier to market now.

    • Anonymous

      At the same time there are no features to interest the other’s customers and make them switch.

  • Anonymous

    HTC Trophy sales on Verizon in June probably offset the remaining losses WinMo6.x has been seeing.  I know many were waiting forever for a WP release on Big Red.

    • GP007

      Verizon sales probably did help, it also helped that WP has been in the news pretty often these past few months, and mango is getting very good press.

  • http://twitter.com/mobilemancer Andreas Karlsson

    When did Mango turn in to v7.5?

    • Anonymous

      From the start?

    • http://twitter.com/mobilemancer Andreas Karlsson

      Why is Microsoft calling it 7.1 then?

    • Anonymous

      7.1 is the internal name, 7.5 is the public name.

      The public sees it as thus:
      7.5 is half-way to the next release (major).
      7.1 is just a service pack (minor).

    • Anonymous

      7.1 is the internal name, 7.5 is the public name.

      The public sees it as thus:
      7.5 is half-way to the next release (major).
      7.1 is just a service pack (minor).

  • http://twitter.com/mobilemancer Andreas Karlsson

    When did Mango turn in to v7.5?