Maximum PC: Market research firms agree that worldwide PC shipments declined in the first quarter of 2014, which is the eighth quarter in a row of negative movement. However, there are signs that the market is starting to stabilize. It's a bit of a fuzzy picture at the moment because users migrating from Windows XP could be mucking with the trend line, but the picture should become much clearer by the end of the year.
Gartner, Inc. said global smartphone sales will continue to slow and will no longer grow in double digits. Worldwide smartphone sales are expected to grow 7 percent in 2016 to reach 1.5 billion units. This is down from 14.4 percent growth in 2015. In 2020, smartphone sales are on pace to total 1.9 billion units.
IDC admits it was wrong -- the smartphone sales slump is even worse than it thought. iPhone share is actually shrinking, while Android climbs ever-more dizzying heights. Total growth will fall this year to a mere 3.1%, say IDC’s prognosticators. But BlackBerry and Windows Phone are, of course, dead.
Maximum PC: Things aren't looking so hot for Microsoft in the smartphone space. That isn't new, but with Windows 10 Mobile slowly inching its way to more devices, Microsoft is probably hoping for a greater share of the pie. Market research firm IDC isn't as optimistic.
Its a step in the right direction for Microsoft. After Steve Ballmers scattergun approach to wanting to Microsoft to be everywhere without a clearly planned strategy Microsoft now seem to have aligned each of their divisions under one banner. Windows 8 was an awful product, Microsoft tried to take a desktop OS and shoe-horn it into the mobile space but it looks like now they have learned from that experience and Windows 10 will be a true cross platform OS.
Now that Microsoft has moved on from the doomed partnership with Nokia they have started to partner with other manufacturers like HP, Blu, Acer etc. They have a lot of ground to catch up but I think their smartphone sales will also be helped by the boom in 2 in 1 devices with manufacturers like Samsung producing sleek devices and people start to buy into the platform.
The thing that can make a difference for Windows phone is Continuum. They need to bring that down to a $129-150 phone as fast as possible. The coming changes with chips should make that happen in the next couple of years and Microsoft needs to be onboard with it.
