The launch of the flagship smartphone Microsoft Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL in Russia took place on the background of disappointing data analysts. In the Gartner report on the smartphone market for the third quarter of this year estimated the share of Windows Phone as never low – just 1.7%. A year ago this proportion was 3%, and it fluctuated close to this level in recent years and, as noted by observers, no one expected its reduction, on the contrary, there were hopes for growth. The share of competitors is not only considerably higher, but still increased compared with the previous year: in Android, according to the same Gartner report, now and 84.7%, iOS at 13.1 per cent.
However, these sad results become more clear if we compare them with the figures of those released in November next report Ericsson Mobility Report, a section of which is devoted to the analysis of consumer loyalty to mobile platforms. As the authors report, the majority of smartphone owners remain loyal your operating system when buying a new phone except for Windows Phone: only 20% of its users are going to select it during upgrade. For Android and iPhone, the average is 82 and 73%, respectively.
The level of customer loyalty smartphones influenced, among other things, the release schedule of new models. So, the annual appearance of the iPhone in September, causing deviations from conventional schemes where users go from one platform to another. This year within two weeks after the launch of a new iPhone the level of loyalty to iOS soared from 73 to 93% and the loyalty to Android in the same period fell from 82 to 76%.
In this respect Microsoft, of course, plays: the latest model of its smartphone high end came about two years ago, this unit had the Nokia logo and worked under Windows Phone 8. Models, released under its own brand Microsoft, belonged to the category of budget. However, sizeable flagship Lumia 950 and 950XL are in the same niche with the iPhone 6s and the flagship models on Android.
However, Microsoft may not intend to compete with the leading players in their field: the company positions its new products premium not just as a mobile device, like a smartphone, which can be turned into a desktop. But that’s another story.
