Capital One: Windows phones need 10% market share in the UK for us to bring an app to the platform

Jack Wilkinson

Capital One is a large bank in the United States, as well as being a significant credit card provider in Europe, particularly the United Kingdom. However, for those of us used to managing our money through mobile apps provided by banks, which are generally well-supported across places such as the United Kingdom, the outlook is a little different when using a non-European company, such as Capital One.

The company offers no app for Windows phones. Customers can’t check their credit card statement, make their repayments or manage their bank accounts or investments on a Windows phone device without the use of a web browser, such as Microsoft Edge.

The European arm of Capital One, Capital One UK, based in Nottingham, has informed us that there is currently no app in the “pipeline at present” and continued by explaining the reasoning behind this:

As you’ll appreciate, we have to build an entirely new application for each platform, which is time consuming and expensive. Because Windows phone constitutes less than 10% of the market share, it does not make financial sense for us to prioritise that at this stage. The biggest benefit to the most customers comes from building the iOS and Android applications as these constitute 90% of smartphones in the UK.

Unfortunately, this means, for the time being, that there will be no Capital One app on Windows phones. However, it isn’t an outright no forever, either. If Windows phone market share were to rise to or above the 10% threshold given for the UK, then we could see an app arrive at some point.

Image: Capital One Bank provided by Billy Hathorn