14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Phone's growth in Europe was slowed down in September 2014, according to a new bunch of statistics, and one of the main reasons appears to be the debut of Apple's new iPhone 6.
Market share data provided by Kantar indicates that, in the period between August and October 2014, Windows Phone indeed lost approximately 2 percent of its users in certain markets, some of which decided to give iPhone 6 a try.
Obviously, the new iPhone was not the only reason behind Windows Phone's drop, but there's no doubt that the growing interest in Apple's new device contributed to this decline, so Microsoft now needs to work to stir up excitement for its products one again.
Significant drop in the United Kingdom
According to Kantar data, Windows Phone lost almost 4.3 percentage points in the United Kingdom, dropping from 12 percent in the 3 months period ending October 2013 to 7.7 percent in the same interval this year.
The same thing happened for almost every single European market, with Windows Phone posting a drop of a few percentage points despite Microsoft's efforts to promote the operating system.
Keep in mind that, during this whole time, Redmond killed the Nokia brand and launched its very Microsoft Lumia series to focus on Windows Phone smartphones.
Only 0.5 percent market share in China
China, which remains one of the biggest markets for smartphones right now, isn't quite showing signs of recovery for Microsoft, with Windows Phone currently holding only 0.5 percent of the local smartphone business.
At this point, China's smartphone industry is dominated by Android, which currently powers no less than 32.9 percent of the devices in the country, while iOS is second with 15.7 percent.
As far as the United States market is concerned, Android is again the leading platform with 53.8 percent, but iOS is much closer this time with 41.5 percent. Microsoft still has a hard time boosting its market share, so it's now powering only 3.6 percent of the American smartphones.
Last but not least, Italy continues to be one of the best markets for Windows Phone, as Microsoft's smartphone operating system is currently installed on 13.8 percent of the devices in the country.
Android is again the leading platform in Italy with a share of 70.2 percent, while iOS is third, just behind Windows Phone, with 13.5 percent. This is one of the few markets where Windows Phone actually managed to beat iOS and get more users.
