For Microsoft’s mobile strategy, the only direction available is up. Today, IDC reported that Android and iOS controlled 96.3 percent of the mobile market in 2014. That means that Microsoft’s Windows 10 strategy, which will see a single operating system stretch from the smallest to the largest screens, is starting in many ways from scratch.
Interestingly, Microsoft actually grew its device volume in 2014, but saw its market share as a percentage of the global market decline, as the market expanded at a faster pace.