Microsoft has just announced that it sold 8.6 million Lumia smartphones during the first quarter of 2015 (January to March 2015). The sales have gone up by 18 percent when compared to what they were in the same time frame last year, but are down by 18 percent when compared to the previous quarter (October to December 2014).
The drop can be probably attributed to the fact that the festive sales made their way to the financials in the last quarter, which attracted higher sales. Despite the increase in sales, it witnessed a drop of 16% in its revenue and made $1.4 billion from the sales of Lumia smartphones. Microsoft states the reason behind that as a 'high mix of low-royalty devices'.
To boost the footprint of Windows Phone, it made the operating system free for low-cost manufacturers. Microsoft has recently launched quite a few budget Lumia smartphones which are expected to improve the current quarter's financial reports as majority of them will be going on sale this quarter.
These devices include the Microsoft Lumia 540, Microsoft Lumia 640, and Microsoft Lumia 640 XL. The Lumia 640 and the Lumia 640 XL are already on sale in India for Rs. 11,999 and Rs. 15,799 respectively. It further sold 24.7 million feature phones, but their sales continue to decline, thanks to entry of low-cost smartphones. It stated that 'market for feature phones continues to contract'. Microsoft will release more affordable Windows Phones in the coming months.
