4.5 million only. In the last fiscal quarter, Microsoft sold 4.5 million Lumia smartphones, despite the latest additions to the range (the Lumia 950 and 950 XL). Despite Windows 10. For information, Samsung has 81.3 million mobile elapsed during the same period, Apple 74.8 million, 32.6 million and even Huawei Lenovo, Motorola displays an insolent 20.2 million units sold according to Strategy Analytics.
Mal dot
To say that the Lumia are a failure is an understatement. Just see their market share decline or stagnate consistently over the years to find that something is wrong. Or retain between 2015 and 2016 from the same period of the fiscal year to the next, Lumia sales fell 57% to understand the magnitude of the disaster!
In 2015 (figures in August and on the second quarter), IDC reported that Windows Phone accounted for 2.6% market share, against 13.9% and 82.8 for iPhone % for Android smartphones …
A historical problem
Too geek and poorly thought for a world turned upside down by the iPhone smartphone, Windows Mobile has evolved into 2010 to become Windows Phone 7 . A new OS that was a real renaissance, both ergonomic and functional.
But Microsoft has stepped misstep. He has severed ties with previous versions of Windows Mobile and the market share they represented. Windows Phone 7 also had the ambition to get closer to Windows PC. A good idea … unfortunately weighed down by the industrial disaster that was Windows 8.
As if that were not enough, the redemption Nokia to 5.44 billion euros, in September 2013, finally appears as the acquisition of patents and a declining brand where Microsoft probably hoped to buy a business accelerator. Another failure: the thousands of layoffs that followed are proof
Surface Phone, the temptation to mind Apple …
Microsoft seems in an impossible situation, sentenced on the mobile. Yet it is hard to imagine that the effects of the strategy carried by Steve Ballmer and Elop can only be corrected when your name is Microsoft and that the issue is so important.
Since joining the Redmond giant’s head, Satya Nadella place a new strategy, which wants to get rid of the failures of the previous team. A future that is built without Lumia. The fate that Microsoft is taking shape is reminiscent in some ways to the merger of several lines. Those of Google and Amazon for services and those for Apple products
During the announcement of Surface and Surface Pro 4 Book, Panos Panay had to mouth the credo constantly repeated Steve Jobs: the integration of software and hardware. The Surface Pro Book 4 and, especially, in the incarnation and are experiencing great success of sales. Microsoft announced a 29% increase in turnover for the products area, largely explosion associated with these two new products.
Book With Surface, Microsoft has proven that it is capable of designing a device that takes full advantage of the software he designed. An attractive and innovative product as we do not see so much more.
Phone area, more than a product
The rumor of a Surface Phone, confirmed in hints by Microsoft executives, casts hope an exceptional smartphone that would change the situation. But the area Phone should not only be a more innovative product than others. He will have to divert users of iOS and Android to him and for that he will need sacred arguments. It will also have out of this vicious circle that has contributed to the failure of Lumia: few users, so few developers, so little apps … So even fewer users
<. p> Microsoft has provided possible ways to address the lack of ecosystem around its mobile. Universal applications, supposed traceable to most PC programs on smartphones, are one. The Windows for iOS Bridge project, which promises to facilitate the porting of iOS mobile applications to Windows 10, is another
Victory or defeat victorious?
Mission impossible? With Surface Phone, Microsoft needs to reconstruct an image, rebuild a relationship with users who have left or who never wanted to use Windows Phone.
The Surface Phone will have complete technical revolution, application and use. This smartphone-fantasy has all the airs of a rare bird, an unreachable star.
By abandoning the Lumia, and building on a product that could be only in its range and positioned as a high-end smartphone, Microsoft is playing his last card. His pockets were beautiful to be deep, the Surface Phone seems to be his last chance to succeed. If this equipment should fail or never see the day, however, Satya Nadella has already planned another way, another approach “ platform agnostic” . Gone are the days or Microsoft almost exclusively developed for Windows: now, the company is proud to say she is one of the largest publishers of iOS or Android software.
It is this vision of the world where the steeples of quarrels seem forgotten, which allows for example to Cortana, Windows PDA, to be on iOS or Android. The moving spirit of Microsoft “dilutes” then to be everywhere. If the Surface Phone fail, Microsoft will still have the opportunity to piggyback on smartphones from competitors.
One way to continue mobile adventure by being present without the hassle of hardware. A victorious omnipresence that will not forget his obvious failures.
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