MICROSOFT Corp. is touting its Lumia smartphone as the season’s device-of-choice near the end of summer and on the back of a flat smartphone shipment in the first quarter. A statement by the company that bought Nokia Corp.’s devices and services business (NDS) said it has positioned its Lumia 950 XL “millennials and millennial-minded explorers.”
The device that runs on the Windows 10 operating system gives users “the same look and feel of using Office apps” on desktops, according to Microsoft.
The company’s promotion of its device during the hottest days of the country came before the International Data Corp. (IDC) said worldwide smartphone growth went flat in the first quarter, as Chinese vendors churned IDC’s top 5 vendor list. Microsoft is not on that list. According to IDC, there was minimal growth in the first quarter but the number of units shipped by vendors marked “the smallest year-over-year growth on record.”
Microsoft also touted its smartphone after a decrease in sales of its Lumia phones and other phones during the nine months ended March 31.
In its report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Microsoft said it sold 12.7 million Lumia phones and 63.7 million other phones during the nine months ended March 31, 2016, compared with 28.5 million and 107.3 million sold, respectively, in the prior year. Phone revenue decreased $3.4 billion, or 54 percent, the company said.
In its third quarter of fiscal year 2016, Microsoft said its phone revenue decreased $662 million, or 47 percent. Microsoft said it was able to sell only 2.3 million Lumia phones, and 15.7 million other phones, compared with 8.6 million and 24.7 million sold, respectively, in the prior year.
