Microsoft's share of the U.S. smartphone market continues to dip, according to research firm comScore. That's despite the renewed Windows Phone push.
Microsofts
Windows Phone platform has attracted a fair amount of buzz over the past few
months, largely thanks to Nokias steady cadence of new smartphone releases.
But that hasnt yet translated into any significant gains in Microsofts
overall smartphone market share, according to new data from comScore.
According to
the research firm, Microsofts share of total U.S. smartphone subscribers
declined from 5.4 percent in October 2011 to 4.4 percent in January 2012.
Research In Motions share also fell during that period, from 17.2 percent to
15.2 percent. Meanwhile, Google and Apple both enjoyed gains: the former from
46.3 percent to 48.6 percent, the latter from 28.1 percent to 29.5 percent.
Symbian,
despite Nokia largely abandoning it in favor of Windows Phone, managed to hold
onto a 1.5 percent share of the U.S. market, down from 1.6 percent at the
beginning of the reporting period.
Impacting
Microsofts overall smartphone share is Windows Mobile, Windows Phones now-antiquated
predecessor. As users abandon Windows Mobile in favor of either Windows Phone
or a rival smartphone operating system, it exerts a drag on Microsofts overall
numbers, and disguises the true adoption (or lack thereof) of Windows Phone.
Although
Windows Phone lags the iPhone and Android with regard to general adoption,
Microsoft and its manufacturing partners have spent the past two months engaged
in a far harder push for the platform. Originally developed as a high-end
operating system along the lines of Apples iOS, new devices such as Nokias
Lumia 610 have helped expand Windows Phones offerings into the midmarket and
lower-end range.
New data from
research firm Strategy Analytics suggests that Nokia has become the worlds
largest Windows Phone vendor, at 33 percent of the market, surpassing the
individual efforts of HTC and other manufacturers. The company announced it had
sold 1 million Windows Phone units in the fourth quarter of 2011, surpassing
some analyst expectations.
Nonetheless,
data from comScore and other sources suggests that Microsoft and its
manufacturing partners have significant ground to cover if they want Windows
Phone to become a true competitor to both the iPhone and Android. Recently,
Microsoft has also taken some steps toward making Windows Phone a business
platform, including the coming integration of Good Technologys Good for
Enterprise security solution, which includes Federal Information Processing
Standard- (FIPS-) certified 192-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
encryption for end-to-end mobile messaging.
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Nicholas Kolakowski is a staff editor at eWEEK, covering Microsoft and other companies in the enterprise space, as well as evolving technology such as tablet PCs. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Playboy, WebMD, AARP the Magazine, AutoWeek, Washington City Paper, Trader Monthly, and Private Air. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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