Windows Phone has made some impressive gains in terms of market share over the past year but Microsoft still has a ways to go toward filling in its app gap with iOS and Android. In fact, Microsoft is so determined to get more developers onto Windows Phone that it’s giving developers payouts of up to $100,000 to bring their software over to the platform. The bigger long-term problem for Microsoft is that iOS and Android are still the top destinations for up-and-coming developers who want to have the best chance of making money. Or put another way, Microsoft doesn’t just need to worry about the hot apps it doesn’t have right now but the hot apps it won’t have a year from now.
The Next Web points us to some new research from web browser Opera that shows us why Microsoft has had trouble attracting more developers to Windows Phone despite the platform’s impressive recent gains in market share. According to Opera’s mobile ad network that delivers 60 billion monthly page impressions to 425 million users, Windows Phone accounted for an astonishingly low 0.35% of all mobile ad revenues generated in the fourth quarter of 2013.
How weak is this showing? Consider that Windows Phone generated even less revenue than BlackBerry, which accounted for 1.35% of all mobile ad revenue, and the now-dead Symbian, which accounted for 0.84% of all mobile ad revenue. It looks like Microsoft’s biggest challenge for Windows Phone after growing its user base will be figuring out better ways to monetize its mobile platform.
Opera’s chart comparing all the different mobile platforms follows below.
