Windows 10 is making strides on desktop – it already makes up for more than 20% of the desktop OS market, having surpassed all Windows versions aside from the venerable Windows 7.
Windows 10 on mobile… well, fans might want to sit down. It has reached 14% of Windows phones and half of those are up to Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary Update. Growth is accelerating too. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that Windows Phone 8.1 has 77% of the market, more if you add v8.0. The battle-hardened Lumia 520 is still one of the most popular devices out there, accounting for 10.4% of all Windows phones, though it lost the top spot to another entry-level device – Lumia 535. That is the key to why the Windows 10 update is going slow.
Looking at just devices that run Windows 10, most of them are low-endish devices, including the Lumia 535. The 520 can’t be updated but, strangely, the 535 is not the most popular W10 phone out there. That honor goes to the Lumia 550, a phone that’s not even in the Top 10 of Windows phones in the world (check the previous slide).
So that’s it then. Some phones can’t be updated to 10. Those that are upgradeable, mostly haven’t been. Why? Carriers running late with the update is one explanation but the more probable option is that people can update, they just don’t care to. Neither option is particularly good for Microsoft’s mobile efforts.
Windows on mobile has been steadily losing ground and while it’s still the #3 phone OS, it’s barely there. Last quarter, Android and iOS made up 99.1% of smartphone sales worldwide.
[Source: GSMarena]
