Android shipments touch 85% while Windows Phone relegates into the abyss

Market analyst firm IDC has released the quarterly numbers for smartphone shipments for Q1 2017. The growth of smartphones has been at a steady 3.4% with good demand for OEM flagships. The overall growth of the smartphone market however, has slowed down. There seems to be no stopping the continual rise of Android as the dominant smartphone OS with a healthy 3.6% increase over the previous quarter, registering 85% of the total smartphone shipments. Apple's iOS is far behind at 14.7% and has actually seen a drop of 3.5% since the last quarter.  

Not surprisingly, Microsoft's Windows Phone (or Windows 10 Mobile, if you will) platform has reached a dead end with just 0.1% shipments equalling with the 'Others' category. Over the past year, there has been an 87.5% decrease in Windows Phone shipments from 0.8% in Q1 2016 to just 0.1% Q1 2017. Lack of new devices and developer interest has put the platform on life support. There has been no news from Redmond about a possible Surface-branded phone or any new development apart from a few whispers of prototypes floating around the campus. Even if Microsoft does make a comeback in mobile, contesting Android's leadership will be nothing short of Herculean. 

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