Why Microsoft's CEO Isn't Worried That Windows Phone Is Losing The Smartphone War

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Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella

REUTERS/China Daily

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Depending on which research report you read, the Windows Phone operating system only has about 3% to 5% of the global smartphone market.

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Microsoft may have (laughably) passed BlackBerry, but its grip on the smartphone market is still teeny tiny compared to Android's 80%+ share and iPhone's ~12% share.

But that doesn't seems to bother Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. He looks forward to the next version of Windows, Windows 10, which will run on all devices ranging from phones to tablets to big-screen TVs.

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"I want to be sure we have very popular applications as well as the fabric behind these applications," Nadella told a small gathering of journalists and analysts at the company's headquarters last Thursday. "Once we have that, we are working to make Windows a device family across all screen sizes."

In other words, Windows Phone is just a touch point into the broader Windows ecosystem, which will get a major upgrade next year with Windows 10. There are already over 1 billion devices running Windows, and soon Windows Phone will be lumped into that.

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Nadella also admitted that Windows' strength is still in big-screen devices like desktops, laptops, and tablets. But he thinks Windows 10 will help drive people buying Windows computers and other devices like the new fitness band to buy Windows Phones, too.

"As we grow share, we will have a transference to the phone," Nadella said. "We did the band as a cross platform piece. That's the beginning of a relationship with Microsoft. Windows Phone is part of a bigger play."