Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile quickly approached a market share of 0% and statistics show that most users abandoning the platform are moving to Android, with only a few of them embracing Apple's system.
Kantar data for the three-month period ending December 2017 shows that the shift from Windows phones to Android helped Google's mobile operating system minimize the losses it recorded after the debut of the iPhone X and Apple worldwide.
“Despite iOS’s strong performance in most markets, Android’s losses have been somewhat offset by the rapid decline of Windows, whose share is now below 1% in all markets except Italy,” says Kantar.
In the EU5 region, Windows phones fell to 0.7%, down from 2.6% in the same period last year. Specifically, the biggest declines were in France, where the platform fell 3% to 0.2%, and in Italy, where it fell 2%.
In Spain, on the other hand, Microsoft's mobile operating system lost 0.5% and now sits at 0% sales share. For comparison, Android is the top choice in that country with a market share of 87.1%.
In non-EU markets, Windows phones fell in the United States, although not at the same rate as in the rest of the world. Microsoft lost 0.2% to 0.6%, while in China it remained at 0.1%, the same as in 2016. On the other hand, Windows phones also fell to 0% in Japan.
The biggest growth recorded by Android, with Windows Phone users as a contributor, took place in France where it saw an increase of no less than 3.4% to reach 75.6%. The largest share is now in Spain where Android has reached 87.1%.
As for the future of Windows phones, nothing is happening on that front, as Microsoft has confirmed not only that no new phones & features are planned, but also that the Windows Insider program for mobile has been discontinued.
