Microsoft may be betting big on Windows 10 Mobile, but a report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that it may not be enough. According to the report, the Windows Phone’s market share will see a rise by 2019, but it will only be a paltry 0.1%. It shows that the OS will have a market share of 2.2% by end-2015, and will rise to just 2.3% by 2019.
IDC predicts that Windows Phone will see 31.3 million units shipped in 2015, and that number will increase to 43.6 million units by 2019. In its report, IDC states, “Despite all the effort Microsoft has put into the launch of Windows 10, IDC does not expect Microsoft's share of the smartphone OS market to grow much over the coming years.” The research firm forecasts a year-over-year decline by 10.2% in 2015, followed by further decline in 2016. IDC says that these results can largely be attributed to the lack of OEM partner support.
On the other hand, the report predicts that 1,161 million Android devices will ship in 2015, and will increase to 1,538 million units in four years. It says, “the proliferation of the core Android platform will continue with huge efforts being put forth by companies like Cyanogen and Xiaomi to differentiate themselves from their competitors.” It also said, “Given its global footprint and application/services ecosystem, IDC fully expects some form of Android to hold a dominant share of the smartphone OS space for the foreseeable future.” 226 million units of Apple’s iOS devices are expected to ship in 2015, and that number will jump to 263.4 million by 2019.
The report also predicts that worldwide smartphone shipments will grow by 9.8% in 2015 to a total of 1.43 billion units. Additionally, it updated its previous forecast released in August to reflect the slowing growth in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Western Europe regions. The report states that this growth will decline further to 4.7%, due to lower shipment forecasts for Windows phones, and devices running alternative platforms.
Source: IDC