But so far it appears to be struggling to appeal to consumers, a trend that will continue through to 2019, according to IDC, which attributes the weakness to the lack of support from handset manufacturers.

IDC calculates that Windows' share of the smartphone market will grow just 0.1 percentage points between 2015 and 2019, to 2.3%.

The report estimates that in 2019, iOS will have a 14.1% share of the market, down from 15.8% in 2015, while Android will take 82.6%, up from 81.2%.

The company could be looking to make a last-ditch attempt to revive its business by introducing a Surface Phone, capitalising on the success of its Surface tablets, according to a report from Windows Central.

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