With the smartphone market predicted to enter a sluggish growth for the coming year, Microsoft's Windows Phone is expected to still struggle to get a larger share, a new study revealed.
According to the report by American market research firm International Data Corporation, 2015 is set to be a low year for the smartphone market, with an estimated total shipment of 1.43 billion units by the end of the year. The figure represents just a 9.8 percent growth rate, the first single digit growth registered by the market in the past several years.
IDC attributed the slowdown to the slowing of the Chinese smartphone market. China has been shaping as a replacement market for the industry in the last few years, Information Week reported
The report said that Microsoft's Windows Phone still considerably languish behind market leaders Android and Apple IOS, with just a 2.2 percent share by the end of the year, amounting to only 31.4 million units. This is a considerable drop from last year, where it was able to ship 35 million units. The report predicted that by 2019, shipped handsets will only be at 43 million, and a total market share of just 2.3 percent.
According to IDC analyst Ramon Llamas, the Windows Phones current predicament is still mainly due to the lack of partner support. "I don't see any vendor stepping up to the Windows Phone plate to say we will be a primary vendor of Windows Phone although they might have it as secondary choice behind Android," he said.
However, Lamas predicted that the struggling Windows Phone will be able to find additional secondary vendors such as HTC, LG, and Samsung, PC World reported.
Android still remained the leader and is expected to roll out 1.16 billion units by the end of 2015, netting it an 81 percent share of the market. The IDC said that the figure is unlikely to fluctuate until 2019 when it is predicted to ship 1.53 billion units.
Apple followed behind with 226 million iPhones to be shipped out by the end of this year and a 15.8 percent market share. However, IDC predicted that Apple's share will slightly dip to 14.1 percent in the next four year, as it is expected to increase shipment to only 263 million units by then.