Microsoft’s worldwide smartphone market share drops below 2%

By Tom Warren, on 11th Aug 11 5:54 pm with 74 Comments

Microsoft’s smartphone marketshare has fallen below 2%, according to Gartner.

Gartner research released their latest Q2 2011 mobile device sales on Thursday and the news isn’t great for Windows Mobile and Windows Phone. According to Gartner, Microsoft shifted less units than Bada and Research in Motion. Bada is Samsung’s own operating system. The results mean Microsoft is placed 6th behind Android, Symbian, iOS and others. Android took top place with 43% market share followed by Symbian with 22% and iOS with 18.2%.

Gartner’s figures follow recent stats from comScore that show Microsoft’s U.S. smartphone market share has levelled out to 5.8% in June. 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. Despite both sets of research figures, 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 is expected to launch and announce a range of new Windows Phone 7.5 handsets on September 1. The devices will be featured at the IFA conference in Berlin before being made available later in September or early October.

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 2Q11 - Gartner

  • Anonymous

    It think its rather confusing to lump up Windows Phone and Windows Mobile figures together.. No new Windows Mobile devices has been out since last year so its only logical that the Numbers will continue to fall until Windows Phone takes over completely

    • http://www.facebook.com/aaron.mcruer Aaron McRuer

      Stop using logic.

    • Guest

      Stop trying to rationalize WP7 failure, even Baba a single manufacture OS released the same time as WP7 is selling better.   

    • Andy

      Totally agree

    • Andy

      First, winmo numbers plummet because everybody supposedly waits for wp7. Then wp7 comes out and Ms numbers keep falling. Now everybody is said to wait for mango. Then what ? I agree with stopping to rationalize those numbers, wp7 has been a failure so far.

  • http://twitter.com/efjay01 Ef Jay

    Well, we are still waiting. For the alleged “big” advertising push, new hardware announcements, Mango updates, basically ANY kind of official news that will show WP7 moving forward. The just went RTM, its done, now you can demo the features and say “coming soon”, if they arent ramping up the hype now, when will they?

    • Anonymous

      I guess your parents never taught you patience. You expect one mega-blitz in 48 hours?

  • Pologreg6

    I’m just waiting for my current contract to end and then good bye android. Hello WP7.

    • http://twitter.com/zeduffman Luke

      I’m waiting for the new WP7 devices, then I’ll make the jump.

    • HeatherL

      After owning my WP7 for two months, I am actuarially surprised MS has this high of marketshare, I cant even do custom ring tones with this crappy phone, even worst all of my friend are making fun of me for buying such a lame phone.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KTAHVKS2RNDWTQPHQEJALLRNEQ Adam Paris

      Yeah cause people care about custom ringtones.

    • Jawsh

      Plus, WP7′s stock ringtones are so pretty.

    • Aaron

      I agree I like WM6.5 better, after you get past the pretty UI, the tiles get old and in the way and there are still feature missing, and I do not understand why I have to wait for over a year and half for MS to update them.  

    • Pologreg6

      I loved WM6.5. If I could have that with the current specs of my droid X2, I would be content. Android just seems so half baked.

    • BeistleG

      I agree, Android is half baked and while iPhone is a really darn good phone with leading iOS, I rather support MS products and will even if they are not quite as good as is the case with WP7.  I keep hoping mango will help with usability and Nokia will finally produce a Classy WP7 phone.   Though considering they are not going to sell them in the US until 2012 and talking about low price points I am starting to feel like a fool for holding for anything good to happen with WP7.  

    • Andy

      If it can comfort you, you’re not alone in feeling a fool…

    • Andy

      Mango was what we should have had last year. Now it’s too late. Microsoft is the slowest company in business and when it moves it does it without unity of intents, coherence or fixed direction.
      The result is that they’re usually scrambling to catch up. This is the case now. We’re still with a phone that can’t flag emails for it’s own email service and misses tons of features, without offering anything else in return. Apart from risible marketing. Really ?

    • Joe05

      Andy are you here just to put WP7 down?  Well if that is the case, we do not need you we all know the that MS came to the market late with a viable OS, one that was not ready to compete when released, OEM are not supporting the product and carriers hate it to the point that even Samsung proprietary OS Bada is outselling it.  We all know this but we like the UI and you do not know but may mango will help to bring us equal to the other OSes and maybe if Nokia does not go out of business it will help.  

      So unless you can say something good about WP7 why don’t you go troll somewhere else.  

    • Guest

      Beside MS really does not care about WP7 and making it successful, they are just using it to keep them somewhere in the market, allow them to grow the eco-system and then actually try to position Window 8 to be a viable mobile OS after they kill Android.    

    • Anti-M$

      A M$-Fanboy talking bullshit … yeah thats normal ! 

      To critizize something or dislike a criminal monopoly like Micro$oft has nothing to do with trolling! Check?

    • Anonymous

      Ask youself:

      What can WP7 do that I can’t do on Android or iPhone?
      What can Android do that I can’t on WP7?
      What can iPhone do that I can’t on WP7?

      Eliminate the insignificant things like ringtones and moving wallpapers and all the other eye-candy, and what are you left with? Is WP7 significantly better than an old feature phone?

    • Anonymous

      with mango you can in about a month you can

    • http://twitter.com/APSN910 Aaron Stark

      Custom ringtones??? I smell troll. 

      Also what kind of loser friends do you have, they make fun of you because of a phone choice???  On top of that you have such a low self esteem that that is what gets to you.

    • Anonymous

      As I asked Joe05…

      Ask youself:

      What can WP7 do that I can’t do on Android or iPhone?
      What can Android do that I can’t on WP7?
      What can iPhone do that I can’t on WP7?

      Eliminate the insignificant things like ringtones and moving wallpapers and all the other eye-candy, and what are you left with? Is WP7 significantly better than an old feature phone?

    • JeepGuy

      Your friends are making fun of you because of your phone choice??? haha… Sounds like you and your friends are LAME.  Is this what kids today worry more about?  Whether you can customize your ringtones?  What ever would they have done 15 years ago?

    • Guest

      This coming from a “guy” who defines himself by the vehicle he owns… the depth of stupid!

    • judge

      if u judge someone by the RANDOM username they put online ur retarded.  i could say ur a lazy old fart who can’t type, since ur username is “Guest”.  also, jeepguy is probably more creative than you…since he actually came up with a relevant username.  uve been judged by ur username.  how does it feel?

    • Anonymous

      Jeep… Jeep? Really? Hahahahahaha

  • TryllZ

    Nokia can place M$ back in the game, they have been world leaders for a very long period, agreed that they were feature phones but if they can develop and innovate feature phones they can surely do smartphones…I am optimistic on a high note..

  • Anonymous

    I wouldn’t panic just yet. If Nokia can convert even half of their Symbian sales to WP7 sales, that would put Microsoft neck and neck with RIM (who seems to be plummeting quickly anyhow). I wouldn’t be surprised to see WP7 at the 10% mark by this time next year.

    • Anonymous

      Who’s panicking? This is par for the course!

    • Andy

      par 3 or 4% ?

    • Guest

      Have you seen Nokia’s numbers, talk about plummeting, trust me they will be single digit market share but end of 4qtr.   

  • http://twitter.com/alexwilks88 Alex Wilks

    Well I’m gonna be getting the best of whatever Nokia can come up with this year, so would probably double whatever marketshare they have now. By the looks of the hype on the net, a lot of people are expecting Mango to give Windows Phone a massive boost.

  • Anonymous

    Tom Warren
    I Understand you would like to be an impartial reporter. But at times your reports hurt such that you diplomatically undermine Microsoft Wp7 Strategy by showing strange numbers….

  • Guest

    Surprising what results a great product with no advertising achieve.  I guess Apple and Android have purchased all the TV time and Microsoft can’t get any slots.

    • J A

      MS product ad department just suck. Even when they had commercials airing, WP commercials were all about “glance and go”, essentially showing the public how to “put your phone away”. Who cares about that when they should be showing the features and UX? How about showing us what it is like when we actually want to use our phones rather than put it away (or even worse, having random spinning/moving WP devices on ads)? There is a reason why dirt cheap iPhone ads are so effective; they only have a pair of hands, a voice, and the device on a plain background. What else can be better and without clutter or distraction that will take the focus away from the product at hand? Stars or any human presence is not needed on such commercials to convey good selling points.

    • http://twitter.com/fancyFeast133 Steve Dobs

      completely agree. The web ads they are running for wp7 make windows phones look like complete garbage. 

      MS if you are trying to market your phones as comparable to iphones, don’t advertise them in the same spots that people see ‘meet local singles in your area’ ads.

    • http://twitter.com/fancyFeast133 Steve Dobs

      completely agree. The web ads they are running for wp7 make windows phones look like complete garbage. 

      MS if you are trying to market your phones as comparable to iphones, don’t advertise them in the same spots that people see ‘meet local singles in your area’ ads.

    • Andy

      they should be fired en masse

    • Anonymous

      Ballmer should be fired. This comes down to the CEO and vision. Do you think that Jobs doesn’t approve of every single ad before it’s aired?

    • Andy

      No hard feelings, but when Brandon Watson said the nodo update was a big success, I would have fired him. they either are totally disconnected with reality or they don’t understand how to deal with users

  • http://twitter.com/abhi1manyu Abhimanyu Jamwal

    well, all i can say is, unless something darastic, which is some jaw dropping hand sets and amazing marketing along with genuine top notch apps arrive …….the phone might be dead by next year and so will be microsoft phone division and nokia…..and if samsung omnia w and HTC maaza specs are to be believed, i dont see things getting any better…no doubt the phones they say are very fast and reponsive, but who needs a 5 mpx camera on a single core processor with only 8 gig in a 3.7″ screen size..we need bigger phones with better spec sheet to think about a future to wp7

    • Anonymous

      Agree.  If the Samsung W and the HTC Mazaa are going to be released to say, the smaller telecoms in the U.S. (i.e. MetroPCS, Cricket, etc,,) or to say the prepaid market (i.e. Virgin or Boost Mobile), then these devices seem like an appropriate introduction to these markets.  But if these are for release on one of the Big 4 telecoms in the U.S., then it’s just pathetic.

    • Andy

      I was told directly that “they have some nice phones coming up”. Mazaa and Omnia w are not.
      My impression is that they’ll try to undercut android as it has IP problems and that’s it. The high end, I think they gave it up., they’re spelling suicide with most of their last moves

  • Anonymous

    This does make me sad. Not because I want Microsoft to take over the world with windows phones… but because the windows phone is truly a great piece of software and is undermined throughout the world. 

    • Pacific

      Anyone who would take the results of this sort of sample seriously does not need
      to take a test to assess their intelligence – its self disclosing… That’s all
      I’m saying.

    • Anonymous

      Sure, just like any other sample. But it is a sample that can’t be turned a blind eye. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=611639321 Carlos Ribeiro Da Fonseca

    Well, I’m shocked.

    You mean that an absolute lack of direction and strategy, making a complete mess of the first update, zero international advertising and absolutely crap international support — no Marketplace here yet! – isn’t working?

    Shocked, I tell you!

    • Andy

      Shocked ! !!

      But you didn’t mention the best part. Almost nothing of what you mentioned is going to change.

      I really can’t feel any sympathy for their failure

  • http://twitter.com/oolong2 oolong2

    Microsoft’s official world wide campaign doesn’t begin until Nokia and Mango.    I’m convinced that the early release in Europe last year was more to entice Nokia into making the switch.

    Now that they are working together Microsoft has been heavily localizing WP7 Mango, making deals left in right with asian companies/governments, and making changes to work with Nokia’s distribution channels and ways of doing business.

    With Mango + Nokia next year will be a completely different story.

  • Aaron

    Sad but not surprising.  OEM’s simply converted year old Android phones to WP7 versions.  Microsoft ran their usual expensive but crummy marketing.  To be fair, at launch the OS did have some strange omissions like Copy/Paste.  Apple can get away with stuff like that because they are Apple, MS will always have a steeper hill to climb.

    But there is hope.  With Mango I can’t think of much that the critics can claim the OS doesn’t have.  I doubt MS marketing will get any better, but Nokia might be able to ramp up the exposure.  And perhaps most importantly, with all of the Android IP issues, maybe HTC, Samsung, and other OEM’s may finally start putting some effort into their windows phones and stop using their 2 year old android models.

  • Naser

    WoW Surprise,,, Microsoft they didn’t open their marketplace and they did not support many important languages in their phone !!!!! so what did they expecting form the consumers.

  • Test1ngi23

    :)

  • Anonymous

    WP7 fans, time to hit the button,

    http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/

    There you go, a FACT, no one likes WP7 interface, it’s terrible. The market has spoken. Microsoft made a huge mistake by going with the tiles UI, it is just not good and they’ll make an even bigger mistake by going with the same tiles UI in Windows 8, Apple will take lots of shares away from Microsoft.

    Wake up Microsoft, come up with a new UI fast! Or else you might just as well make a tombstone tile for yourselves, that interface will ruin you!

    And I also like the excuses some of these WP7 fans give like “I’ll wait till Mango comes out”, “I’ll wait till Nokia makes a phone”, I’ll wait till this, I’ll wait till that, Mango comes out and they won’t buy it, Nokia makes a phone and they won’t buy it, they’ll buy an iPhone or Android, but will keep giving excuses… “I’ll wait till Tango or Apollo comes out”…
    WP7 fans, time to hit the button,http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/

    There you go, a FACT, no one likes WP7 interface, it’s terrible. The
    market has spoken. Microsoft made a huge mistake by going with the tiles
    UI, it is just not good and they’ll make an even bigger mistake by
    going with the same tiles UI in Windows 8, Apple will take lots of
    shares away from Microsoft.

    Wake up Microsoft, come up with a new UI fast! Or else you might just as
    well make a tombstone tile for yourselves, that interface will ruin
    you!

    And I also the excuses some of these WP7 fans give like “I’ll wait till
    Mango comes out”, “I’ll wait till Nokia makes a phone”, I’ll wait till
    this, I’ll wait till that, Mango comes out and they won’t buy it, Nokia
    makes a phone and they won’t buy it, they’ll buy an iPhone or Android,
    but will keep giving excuses… “I’ll wait till Tango or Apollo comes
    out”…

    Don’t believe me? Just wait, after Mango comes out, after Nokia comes
    out, check the first quarterly results, they’ll be unchanged and on a
    downward spiral.

    WP7 is terrible.

    Don’t believe me? Just wait, after Mango comes out, after Nokia comes out, check the first quarterly results, they’ll be unchanged and on a downward spiral.

    WP7 is terrible.

    • Eddy

      You’re an idiot

    • Seb

      Windows Phone doesn’t need a new UI; it needs however a bunch of good apps and REALLY good ads (just any ads would be a beginning in fact)

    • Alombelino

      Metro could be refined a bit, I don’t like seeing the begining of a word to tell me there is another screen. I like the overall style of metro, but I’d rather see an arrow or pointer or small block to indicate another screen.

    • Anonymous

      iPhone sold well before ads. So did iPad. So did a lot of good products. Ads are not the key.

      The UI is terrible. And I’m not sure any amount of “good” apps will help overcome that initial “WTF” moment we all have when we first see a WP7 phone.

      I played with one recently, and it was slick… Too many problems though. Tiles? What a terrible idea!

      If MS wants to succeed, they need to stop thinking they know everything about UIs, and start thinking about what the idiot who knows nothing about UI design knows about how UIs should look and feel.

    • Joe05

      I would call you a troll if what you wrote wasn’t the truth 8-(  

      OUR ONLY HOPE is that MS lawyers can sue Android OUT of existence!

    • Andy

      don’t agree at all with half your comment, but you stated a truth no one wants to admit. Wp7 should be already selling lots more and we should not talk about “when this happens”. It’s a failure that’s been masked as a wait game
      It might see a boost with Nokia, but it will never become a big player for years, if ever.
      Ms thinks we’re still in 2007 and that there’s plenty of time to catch up, it seems. But the market is almost impenetrable now, especially for such a plague-bearing name like Ms

    • Guest

      FO troll

  • Anonymous

    Let me know by Sep 2012 what Windows Phone 7 marketshare is. To talk about “Windows Mobile” in August 2011 is stupid and retarded. That’s a dead brand.

  • Pacific

    I will say this again…
    Anyone who would take the results of this sort of sample seriously does not need
    to take a test to assess their intelligence – its self disclosing… That’s all
    I’m saying.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KTAHVKS2RNDWTQPHQEJALLRNEQ Adam Paris

    Its a shame WinRumors doesnt see that the numbers are wrong.

    Read what your friends at WMPoweruser have to say about these numbers: 

    http://wmpoweruser.com/gartner-claims-massive-windows-phone-sales-collapse-in-q2-seems-wrong/

  • MicrosoftHasBallz

    A little patience please. First off, we have Mango and Nokia just around the corner. Is Microsoft a little slow at times…sure…maybe–but I believe in their products. WinMo 6.5 was getting old–MS certainly wasn’t going to best crApple that way. WP7 is genius–and best of all…it is different. Many of us new that it was going to get worse before it gets better. Yeah, I agree the stats suck…but Microsoft is a big company. They will power through. XBox wasn’t originally a winner either–and now look. They own gaming and Kinect is currently revolutionizing the world (archeology, medical, etc.). If Microsoft can be blamed for anything its marketing. I see about 100 ads and commercials for iPhone and iPad and Android for every one Microsoft commercial. Worse marketing ever. They need to seriously work that out. Weren’t they supposed to have spent a crazy amount of money pushing this? I’m from Southern California. I’ve seen some ads pop up on the CW–but come on! I watch a lot of content across television various networks etc. I feel like Microsoft sometimes holds back.

    Proud owner of a HTC HD7 (previously own 4 iPhones).Hail Microkia! :)

  • http://twitter.com/mcakins McAkins Online

    What’s with Microsoft and the international market. Its no wonder they are failing. Tell me any MS product that is Internationally focused apart from Windows itself? It is ridiculous. The competition has wipped your backside in US still you refused to go international with Windows Phone. Your international users are treated as second-hand citizens. We always have to wait and sometime never get the features that is available to users in US. Did you remember Zune? Yes that product is also dead. It never made is outside of US.

    AS for me, I am not shedding any tears. MS has itself to blame. Just quit the game if you can’t compete. Windows Phone 7 is a great product, it will gain critical mass once people get to know it. But how will they if you don’t make it available? Some of us outside of US has to resort to tricks to make our devices work. This is ridiculous! You owned the mobile space and you gave it away on gold platter MS.

  • Jinge

    I think the fact that constructors don’t provide very nice phones (and no new since the release) impacts a lot…
    And people aware of WP7 know that a big release is coming so people wanting WP7 are waiting for mango + new phones.
    So no new people because of the lack of diversity + no convinced people delayed by the mango release => low market share…

    Now let’s see how it is going to be after september. I hope we will see quality phones coming which going to be decisive in WP7 adoption.

  • Wrd

    How can they sell WP7 i 2011Q3 when you can’t buy it? All telecoms in my country are out of stock with WP7, and I had to order my device from ebay. Right now WP7 wasn’t even been considered as phone for customers but for early adoptors, developers and MS fans. Real WP7.5 explosion is expected in few months. I see that most pof people outside US blame MS for lack of support, but facts is that MS has no strenght to deploy WP7 devices to worldwide market in such a short period.
    Until they “bought” Nokia and their contracts with all mayor telecoms in 180 countries. That is real treasure for MS. Nokia is still worldwide brand-name, and people won’t buy MS or WP phones, but Nokia phones. That are consumers. If they succeed to integrate Skype to Mango, then (with other new Mango features) they will have killer product for 2012.
    Also MS is going to knock-down Motorola with IP rights, and you must know that Motorola ships 30% of Android phones.
    Right now there is silence before storm. This is battle for positions in 2013-2015 period. Smartphone market in 2011 is nothing compared to expectations for next years. And I also think that Gartner predictions were to optimistic for Android in 2015. I expect 30/30/30 for these main three players.

  • Anonymous

    once the nokia stuff kicks in MSFT needs to do two two things:

    -better marketing
    -give the OS for free like google does, and capitalize on services.

  • Jack

    MS’s issue is the already high attach rate of the competition. They really need to come up with a clever strategy, if there is one at all.

  • Neil

    Looking at the statistics in this article I think we should all expect to see a jump in marketshare over the next year to 18 months. The new features of the Mango release are nice and add functionality to the phone. There are still useful features that are not available at this point but Microsoft is catching up. I never used an iPhone but used a Blackberry for about 10 years. I like the phone personally.

    I have to sy though that I have been disappointed by sales people at both AT&T and Verizon who push competitors even when my wife and I went in specifically asking about for the Windows Phone… this behavior itself has a big impact on marketshare.

  • Jules

    WP7  does not work outside the US, that why the sale people cannot sell WP7 phones  Until  Microsoft relise that the Smartphone Market is Worldwide, it will continue to Tank, and Micorosoft give up on this game

  • http://www.gamerelatedblog.com/ StriderNo9

    People will buy WP7 devices if hardware makers and carriers put out better devices. Make a high end device and people will want it.