Nadella has little faith in smartphone market

Satya Nadella

Microsoft's share of the smartphone market is set to decrease thanks to the continued growth of Android and Apple, according to the company's own CEO Satya Nadella.

Although Nadella is not particularly optimistic about Microsoft's position - which saw it claim 1.7 per cent of the mobile market last year according to Google - it does not seem to be of great concern to him as the company focuses on the enterprise market, where both software and services are going strong.

"You and I throughout the day, we will use many devices,"Nadella told Buzzfeed. "Perhaps you start with a phone. But then you walk into your conference room where there are sensors, large screens, and small screens. And then you go back home to your TV or your Xbox. The idea is thatyour apps, your data, your context move from device to device [when] you are mobile."

He said judging Microsoft's success on its hardware alone would be doing it a disservice - instead, those deciding how successful the giant is should look at the company as a whole. The experience and the way people are using Microsoft within their own networks, making sure every piece of equipment they own just works, whether it is provided by Microsoft or a competitor, are the most important things, he claimed.

"If you think of this more like a graph, these [devices] are all nodes. Sometimes the user will use all of these devices, sometimes they'll use only one or two of our devices and some other platforms. So be it. But we want to make sure that we are completing the experience across all of these devices."

However, Nadella added that bringing the smartphone and desktop operating system closer together in Windows 10 gives the company an opportunity to win back some of the support it has lost - specifically from developers - over the last few years.

"There's no question that in the case of the smartphone, today, we are not that high in share. Now, with HoloLens we're going to get back a lot of elite developers. And with Xbox becoming basically a Windows computer, we're going to get back a whole lot of developers," he said.

Clare Hopping
Freelance writer

Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.

Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.

As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.