Microsoft's share of the worldwide smartphone market hit a new low in the third quarter of 2015, according to a report from the research firm Gartner. It claims that Windows Phone only had 1.7% of the market in the quarter, compared to 3% from the same period a year ago.

Overall, Gartner says that 353 million smartphones were sold during the quarter, up by 15.5% compared to last year. However, the number of Windows Phone-based devices sold during that quarter amounted to just 5.874 million units.

Microsoft's upcoming launch of Windows 10 Mobile is not expected to change things much, at least in terms of market share, according to Gartner.

"Despite the announcement of Windows 10, we expect Windows smartphone market share will continue to be a small portion of the overall smartphone OS market as consumers remain attracted by competing ecosystems," said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner. "Microsoft smartphones will mainly focus on driving value for enterprise users."

The question is will the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL make a difference in sustaining that share or is it a lost cause? While Microsoft's new Lumias look like solid offerings the competition may have finally just become too good.

Source: Gartner: Via: Thurrott.com