Dive Brief:

• The sale of Microsoft Windows smartphones fell 76% year-over-year in the second quarter, research firm Gartner reports.
• Sales fell from about 8.2 million units in Q2 of 2015 to about 2 million units last quarter.
• Microsoft has turned away from phones and put more emphasis in its cloud computing business in recent months.

Dive Insight:

The jaw-dropping dip is reflected in some recent Microsoft business moves, Computerworld notes. Windows phones never broke 5% market penetration, but were still at 2.5% in Q2 of last year. But the computing giant has written off a $10 billion-plus loss and has gotten out of the consumer phone business entirely, the publication notes.

The phones once were considered a key growth area for Microsoft, and Windows 8 in particular was clearly written with mobile devices in mind. Microsoft even acquired mobile phone maker Nokia in 2013 for about $7.9 billion, but that brand has faded substantially in the past three years.

This might be the coda to Microsoft's attempt to get into the phone hardware business — at least, for now. It also means the company has pulled back on the concept of using Windows to drive everything across the enterprise. Microsoft sold off Nokia earlier this year; earlier this week, Nokia's new owners announced they had grabbed the former CEO of Rovio, the company best-known for "Angry Birds," to lead efforts to resuscitate the brand.