Dive Brief:
- Gartner says Microsoft's Windows mobile OS will fail to make an impact in consumer smartphones and will instead be relegated to enterprise users.
- Prior versions of Microsoft mobile haven’t performed well. Windows Mobile was in just 5.87 million handsets shipped during the third quarter this year.
- In comparison, Android shipped 298.8 million units during the third quarter.
Dive Insight:
Windows 10 will remain primarily an enterprise play, said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner.
The Windows operating system is used in Microsoft's handsets, whose shipments declined to 30.3 million units in the third quarter from 43.13 million units a year earlier.
Gartner said total worldwide mobile phone shipments equaled 477.9 million units during the third quarter.
Many low-price smartphones carry Android, but Microsoft wants to put the Windows 10 mobile OS in low-cost handsets by partnering with companies like Acer, TCL and others.
