Reports show that Windows Phone market share is in the very low single digits in the U.S. and have declined since the release of Windows Phone 8
Declined - that used to mean gone down.
Reading a bit further..ah,yes that is what he means
Microsoft had a 2.9% market share of the smartphone market in the U.S...More disturbing still is that Microsoft's market share declined from the quarter previous, when it had a 3.6% market share. That means that Microsoft's share of the smartphone market declinced since the release of Windows Phone 8.
That is unfortunate - I don't have one of those - but apparently it ain't bad as a phone o/s.
% terms in a MATURE market is usually a total misleading statistics -- instead of the % share of the market look at VOLUMES SHIPED and SOLD.
(I've posted before -- Stats - can be totally MISLEADING -- you need to know WHAT EXACTLY YOU ARE MEASURING and HOW IT RELATES TO THE STATEMENT YOU ARE MAKING).
Are you telling me that less and less people are buying Windows 8 phones - because that's blatently not the case. W8 phones in this MATURE market are doing quite nicely and even better in places like china. Also you need to split off the rather poor older Windows 7 phones which were a dog from the newer Windows 8 ones like the new Nokia Lumia's (for some reason the yellow ones seem very popular !!).
Nobody these days is going to capture 100% of the market -- and Ms is playing catchup with people like Samsung etc.
I really HATE the sheer Short termness mentality of most of the American business community. If it's not an instant success it's a failure -- no time to decently grow a market etc-.
The Windows 8 phone market is actually coming along quite nicely -- of course it's not "Growing" as fast as some of the other phones --how could it possibly - there aren't enough handsets, or even outlets to even to start EVEN THINKING of competing with the Iphone --YET --but this is where the wretchedness of the US Short termism comes into play -- what about the aging Iphone 4 and replacement / upgrade market -- of course much smaller than the original market - but since nearly everybody has a smart phone now that market has matured and requires a totally different strategy to the original processes when smartphones were new.
The Surface pro is another type of device -- actually Ms should be commended on getting something decently portable which combines the power of a PC with a tablet form factor. I think even before tablets became the rage I posted somewhere quite a while ago that this is what the tablet market would "morph" into and the idea of a bog standard plain tablet would eventually become as dead as the dodo.
With a decent docking station and a proper keyboard this could EASILY replace quite a powerful laptop -- and when you just want it in tablet mode it does that job just perfectly too.
Price might be a little high and the keyboard on offer is diabolical -- anybody needing a keyboard will undoubtedly use a proper wireless usb one.
Battery life on the whole isn't really an issue -- how many times do you really get constrained by the lack of battery life on your device. - Most places where I'd use one of these in "Portable mode" such as on a train or bar or airport there are electrical sockets available (yes even in a bar - there's always a few sockets around - or do you visit those establishments which are never cleaned so don't have any electrical power for vacuum cleaners etc etc) !!.
If I'm on a plane even on a trip from Manchester (UK) to LA - 10 hrs approx. I wouldn't want to use a computer for more than around 2 to 3 hrs at the most so even here battery life isn't a huge issue -- and I suspect if it wasn't something like movie watching the battery life on this tablet could be ecked out a bit longer.
What I fail to understand is why on earth the RT was released first --usually you release the flagship product first and then the cheaper less featured models -- suspect Xmas was the guilty factor here --but the RT tended to backfire a bit -- Too much tablet and not enough PC for the price,
I shall certainly look at the Surface Pro but won't pay the standard retail price -- I shall either wait until the next (probably cheaper model) comes out or trawl around to source a highly discounted version -- I don't think Ms will restrict selling these only in their own stores as there aren't enough of these outlets around if Ms really want to push sales.
Cheers
jimbo
