AdDuplex releases January 2015 stats for Windows Phone: Low-end devices are still king

Sean Cameron

Windows Phone

AdDuplex has released its statistics detailing the state of the Windows Phone market as it currently stands. As ever, the tale is one of slow improvement, at least insofar as it follows Microsoft’s internal strategy for the OS. What Redmond set in place months ago is coming to fruition, and what the long term impacts of this strategy shift will be are impossible to know.

What can be learned however, is that low-end Windows Phone devices are on a winning streak across the globe. The Lumia 520 remains the most popular Windows Phone device in the world, however its successors are nipping at its heels, with the Lumia 530 and 630 gaining significant market share. Globally, the Lumia 520 is resting on 23.8% market share, with the Lumia 530 coming in at 4.2% and the 630 at 8.6%. In Brazil and France, the Lumia 520’s market share has dropped significantly, and in Germany the 630 has completely overtaken it.

Lumia 520

News has arrived regarding the success of the first Lumia device to bear the ‘Microsoft’ branding, the 535. Released recently in India, the handset now commands a market share of 9.1%, a large chunk for a device that has been on release for such a short time. Unfortunately, the high end of the Windows Phone market continues to suffer. The Lumia 925 and 920 still command a strong presence despite being several years old, actually managing to increase their presence globally. The 930 continues to suffer, failing to break into the top ten globally, as is also the case with the 1520 and 1020.

Not a great deal has changed with regards to who makes Windows Phones either, with Microsoft/Nokia accounting for 95.6% of the overall market. Its nearest competitor, HTC, rests at a miserly 2.56%. On the plus side, Windows Phone 8.1 is seeing an uptake in downloads, up 4.7% to 62.6% overall. 24.2% of devices are still running Windows Phone 8.0, and a stalwart 13.2% are languishing on Windows Phone 7.

Lumia 1520

AT&T continues to be the network running the most Windows Phone devices, accounting for 30.8% of the market. T-Mobile and Cricket are its nearest competitors, with the former coming in at 19.7% and the latter achieving 19.3%, neck and neck with one another. That the smaller players are able to achieve significant market share is interesting, showing the relative disinterest of other, bigger, players in really entering the game.

What does all of this mean however? Firstly, that Microsoft’s strategy of focusing on the low-end is only going to continue. With devices like the 535 achieving significant market share within a short period of time, and the likes of the 532 and 435 shortly to be released in markets around the world, it is likely that February will see this trend continue. The replacement of devices with less than 1GB of RAM is a priority of Redmond, which indicates that there may be some incompatibility between such devices and the new Windows 10 software that the company is eager to push.

It also means that the high-end of the market will continue to languish, and whether it will ever recover is as yet impossible to know. What is for sure is that Windows Phone continues to play host to a number of interesting developments, there is life in the old dog yet.

Do you believe these are positive developments? Let us know in the comments below.