Windows Phone Market Share Dipped To Just 2.8% In 2014

Took a little while for the final mobile sale statistics to come out, but according to Gartner, the Windows Phone market share dropped to an overall 2.8% last year.

Things sure seem to have taken a turn for the worse for the platform.

Data shows that Windows Phone registered a decline form 3.2% in 2013 to 2.8% in 2014 — and this is despite the fact that Microsoft actually sold more devices in this period. The company is still far behind in terms of overall numbers, though.

Android, for example, moved no less than 1 billion devices, which is good for a commanding 80.7% of the market. Apple ended up as the runner up with 15.4%.

Or 191 million units.

Microsoft, on the other hand, shipped in excess of 35 million devices last year, making for a soft increase from the 30.7 million units that left the factory floors in 2013.

However, there is some good news for the platform in how it registered strong growth in Europe. As Gartner puts it:

“Chinese and other smaller players drove Android’s performance in 2014, while more established players at the higher end of the market continued to struggle to increase stickiness to their brands and ecosystems. Windows Phone’s performance was flat but it recorded strong results in some markets in Europe, and in the business segment.”

The business domain is another key area with immense potential for Windows Phone.

It perhaps merits a mention that the company did all this with affordable devices, as it has been ages since we have seen a high-end smartphone from Microsoft. The company, obviously, has very high expectations from Windows 10, its next operating system.

But the company will really need to outdo itself when it comes to new hardware launches, to slow down the growth of Android and carve out a bigger market share for itself later this year.

Let’s just see.