Windows Phone is close to receiving the official upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile, and there are hopes that this new operating system could be a "breath of fresh air" so that Microsoft's mobile platform can come closer to its rivals, Android and iOS.
Microsoft has never been particularly concerned about Windows Phone, saying instead that it looks at Windows market share overall, not by platform. But a chart from Statista (a statistics and research website) shows that Android and iOS control over 97 percent of the mobile market.
Specifically, the combined market share of Android and iOS increased from 38% to 97.5% between 2010 and 2015, with Windows Phone gradually losing ground every year.
For Windows Phone, the lack of apps has always been one of the platform's main problems, combined with the secrecy that Microsoft seems to have maintained in recent months about the new Windows 10 Mobile.
When it comes to apps, Microsoft has tried very hard to attract developers to its platform, with the company eventually creating the concept of universal app development, aiming to help developers create apps that will work on both mobile and desktop.
Statista, however, explains that developers and users are moving towards Android and iOS together, and similarly, when Windows Phone fans move to a rival platform, developers will act accordingly.
“Since Android and iOS have devoured market share, all other platforms have sooner or later fallen into the same vicious cycle: app publishers and developers prefer platforms with a large number of users, and users choose platforms based on the availability of their favorite apps,” Statista reports. “If users change course, developers will follow. The same is true vice versa.”.
