Only 5.8 million WP sold?

[Mad Cabbie]

Really? What is going on at Redmond??

That many devices should be the total for a small / medium country! Not globally! How can a software company, where most of the world use their product, return such poor numbers? Why is there NO mention of continuum in the TV ads, no mention of 950....etc.

Why no carriers in US? I'm in the UK and most stores have WP. Even a catalogue shop has several devices, including the 640xl. I am stumped as to how MS missed the party. IMHO, they should have retained the Nokia brand on devices, as Nokia is known worldwide. Why, when you buy a PC, is there no leaflet or dvd in the box displaying the WP, especially for those buying Win10? How hard can it be for OEM's to stick one in, with maybe a 'special' deal voucher? How about a leaflet for continuum, with a web address for a demo?
It can't be that difficult, or expensive, surely?

As for the limited carriers in the US, can they not piggy back off one of them, and sell the devices with airtime? The infrastructure is there. In th UK it's a common practice. Even a phone seller ( car phone warehouse ) over here piggy backs off of the three network and offer airtime cheaper than them.

Am I off my head on tramadol, or aren't Microsoft interested????

 

[Nicholas Ek]

5.8 million Lumias. You need to chill, even stock prices were up, LOL. Most importantly, there were no new phones last quarter. Also, Microsoft is scaling down on the number of offerings, so I don't see why they should worry right now. They are providing tools for developers and running ads, but they won't go out of their way just to please carriers. They don't want to lose money. End of story, hope you can sleep tonight.

 

[msnawe]

Blackberry doesn't do too bad after all with its very limited presence in stores...

Microsoft has the financial power to push WP hard..

Maybe they should switch their engineers to write apps themselves since not many want to do it outside. They are pretty good at writing apps.

 

[Spectrum90]

BlackBerry sold 800k devices last quarter, they're done. Microsoft still has a small chance.

 

[tgp]

BlackBerry sold 800k devices last quarter, they're done. Microsoft still has a small chance.

BlackBerry is releasing an Android device. We'll see what happens there.

Microsoft can keep WP going as long as they wish. They've been subsidizing it for 5 years already. Microsoft is the third largest company (based on market cap) on earth. Will WP ever be profitable? Maybe, but probably not anytime soon. But if Microsoft wishes to keep it going, they can do it forever.

 

[Spectrum90]

BlackBerry is releasing an Android device. We'll see what happens there.

Microsoft can keep WP going as long as they wish. They've been subsidizing it for 5 years already. Microsoft is the third largest company (based on market cap) on earth. Will WP ever be profitable? Maybe, but probably not anytime soon. But if Microsoft wishes to keep it going, they can do it forever.

BB10 is done. Now they're trying with a high-end Android phone, good luck with that.

Microsoft already stopped duping money into the phone division. If sales fall too low the product will be effectively dead.

 

[tgp]

BB10 is done. Now they're trying with a high-end Android phone, good luck with that.

Kind of off the subject, but I think it will be interesting to see BlackBerry listed in sales reports as a manufacturer, but no longer in the list of operating systems. This of course is assuming that BB10 is dropped completely. The Priv and any Android devices to follow would be in the Android category of OS reports, but BlackBerry would be gone from that list. If they still sell devices running BB10, those devices would be in the OS list, but the BlackBerry Android devices would be categorized under Android.

Interesting times are ahead!

 

[HeyCori]

Microsoft's last major flagship/mid-range was the 1520/830 and that was released at the tail end of 2013. For a company that essentially decided to sit out all of 2014, and only managed a paltry 5.8 million units last quarter, it's slightly amazing that MS didn't just close up shop and move on. I think Microsoft realized, and I think fans need to realize that it's not a race anymore. There's no catching up. There's no feature, app, marketing campaign or gimmick that will take WP to iOS levels.

But to be clear, Microsoft has not given up on Windows Phone. While Microsoft may have accepted that the buildup is going to be slow, they're still trying to add value to the platform through Universal apps, Islandwoods, Astoria, Continuum, leveraging Windows 10, Windows Hello, a purported MS payment system, and the great hardware inside of the 950. I see zero signs that MS plans to withdraw from the phone market or Windows Phone. Because if they do, then spending millions to develop new software and design new handsets is an odd way of showing it.

 

[CJ Thunder]

I think sitting a year out and having six million units sold is amazing. Perspective.

 

[Spectrum90]

I think Microsoft realized, and I think fans need to realize that it's not a race anymore. There's no catching up. There's no feature, app, marketing campaign or gimmick that will take WP to iOS levels.

I think some fans need to realize that if market share falls too low developer will leave the platform and won't even publish their Android or iOS apps.

Microsoft needs a decent level of sales to keep their platform alive and they have to do it without burning money. That's the challenge.

BlackBerry is a good example of how sales can suddenly implode when the company lose faith in its products.

 

[robnhl]

It's true that sales can fall off a cliff. It is important to remember that phones are only part of the mobile play for Microsoft. I fully expect MS to release a small surface device running W10M next year. W10M will also be available on small tablets from Dell, HP, Asus, and every other PC manufacturer large and small. All of those sub $200 tablets that we've seen in the past year would be released with the mobile OS in the future.

So, this time next year I'd guess we'll have new low-end Lumias, the 950 series, Surface Phone, Surface Mini, existing WP8.1 devices, and 3rd party small tablets all running W10M. That should be a pretty significant number when taken together.

 

[msnawe]

Selling 800k why barely any device in store, barely any visibility, any financial backing is a more amazing achievement. It shows discerning people go and get the device.

Having the same financial power as Apple or Google and phones everywhere and only selling 5 millions is not amazing.

It's a verdict on management and their choices. There companies where you can't get away with this sort of results.

Now W10 looks able to turn things around if they don't waste it.

 

[Wbutchart1]

Microsoft has shown recently it can stick things out and turn a profit.

See surface - mocked initially, so many headlines about write offs and a disaster product at the start - now profitable...
Bing - mocked a lot, has been losing money since it started but is now breaking even (as far as I'm aware its not actually struck profit yet?)
These areas are growing and improving.

Mobile, has been missed and screwed up a few times, sure, however it can be turned around, and this version of Microsoft, which has a clear vision and real drive can do it.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

They need to market strongly in developing countries in Africa, S America and Asia. That's where people are still using Nokia phones and are loyal. USA is crazy market from what I've read.

 

[fdalbor]

You can omly disappoint people so many times and then even your most divoited followers say enough is enough. Has Microsoft reached that point is the question? I am willing to still own both a Windows phone and a Android phone. Both mid-rangers so it only costs me what one high end phone costs. But they may come a time when I deem that foolish and drop one of them.