Microsoft Exec: Windows Phone Trumps iPhone and Android Smartphones

According to the Microsoft CFO and CMO of Windows, Tami Reller, Microsoft is beginning to make a strong move back into the global smartphone market, which is currently being dominated by Google Android and Apple. Reller said: “We are now officially the third [mobile] ecosystem.”

According to IDC figures released in May, in Q1 of this year, Microsoft took third place from Blackberry in global smartphone market shipments, by a margin of 3.2 percent to 2.9 percent.

The Nokia Lumia 925 and Lumia 928 devices “have the finest camera technology on the market” and is encouraging the increase in Windows Phone sales to be six times faster than the rest of the smartphone industry at the moment, according to Reller.

Reller added that both business users and consumers “are increasingly choosing [Windows] phones over iPhones and Android phones,” but was unable to offer data as evidence for this statement.

Since its release in 2010, Windows Phone has been troublesome for Microsoft; the company at that time held a mock funeral for the iPhone, confident it would easily overtake the Apple device. However, market share gains since that time have been slow.

There has also been some difficulty in getting developers to create Windows Phone apps, but Microsoft has managed to overtake a smartphone rival, and Reller used this as an opportunity to point out how far the company has come and is able to expand. Reller said: “With Windows Phone gaining this type of traction, ... it's time to build a mobile practice.”

The CEO of New York-based Microsoft analyst firm Blue Badge Insights, Andrew Brust, states that Microsoft had higher expectations of where it would be in the smartphone market by now.

Brust said: “The number of major brand apps that have come to the platform in just the last few months bears this out, and I think this phenomenon has the power to help Microsoft close the gap with Apple.”

According to market research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Android accounted for 52 percent of smartphone sales in the three-month period from March to May, compared to 41.9 percent for iOS and 4.6 percent for Windows Phone.

It remains to be seen how far Microsoft can continue its growth in the smartphone market. (CY) Link

1 Responses to "Microsoft Exec: Windows Phone Trumps iPhone and Android Smartphones" - Add Yours

Roberta J. Fox 7/10/2013 8:14:57 AM

As a Canadian, it is sad to see Blackberry lose its leadership position and move downwards over the last year. We have come to realize, both as consultants and as a distributed small business that it really is about the apps!

We have moved our firm to Windows phones totally when we did our migration to Lync in order to gain the real benefits of integrated applications and devices.

We have been tracking our productivity gains over the last few months, and are averaging 20-25 minutes per consultant per day in efficiency at FOXGROUP.ca. More importantly, we have received comments from clients about how responsive we are and able to work with them across time and distance.