Windows Phone 8 is a solid mobile operating system that has a chance to compete with the iPhone and Android. However, the overall sales for Microsoft’s Windows Phone are continuing to tumble, spelling trouble for the tech giant’s mobile entry. Not only are sales down, but shipments are just as bad. In total, only 7.4 million Windows Phones shipped in Q2 this year. And this is a 9.4% decline from the 8.2 million phones that shipped during the same period last year.

This means that Windows Phone, despite being made by the same company responsible for producing the world’s No. 1 desktop operating system, is headed down the same dead-end street as BlackBerry, which similarly saw its shipments crash by 78% year-over-year and its market share plummet all the way down to 0.5% in Q2 2014.

The argument has been made that Microsoft should just dump Windows Phone and move to Android. Or whether it should stick things out and try to gradually improve its market share. Both directions have their proponents. Many of the essentials are present on the OS, including Twitter, ESPN ScoreCenter and TripIt. And third-party alternatives fill the void for other popular services, like YouTube and Pocket. The free mobile version of Microsoft Office is a huge perk that no other platform has.

Yet with all of these strengths, bad press continues to surround the Windows Phone and many app developers are scared to create in the OS. It is a mystery why Microsoft, a company with so much talent, money and enterprise clout, has so completely failed to build up its own mobile OS. Whatever the company decides, it will be intriguing to see what will happen to the troubled mobile platform.