Windows Phone Gains Market Share as Nokia, BlackBerry Fall

Microsoft's Windows Phone OS might not be anywhere near as popular as iOS or Android, but it's chugging along at a healthy pace nonetheless. WMPower User cites the latest Kantar WorldPanel figures as saying Windows Phone showed significant gains at the end of the December-February quarter.

Kantar's numbers show that Windows Phone only accounted for 2.7 percent of the U.S. market for the same three month period last year. This year, that figure climbed by 1.4 percent to 4.1 percent of the U.S. market. Nokia's Symbian, on the other hand, fell from 0.5 percent to 0.1 percent, and RIM dropped from 3.6 percent to 0.7 percent. Interestingly, iOS also saw a drop, going from an even 47 percent last year to 43.5 percent for the same period this year. Android increased from 45.4 percent to 51.2 percent.

However, the U.S. is just one market, you say. What about elsewhere in the world? Well, the numbers are just as promising. In Great Britain, Windows Phone went from 3 percent to 6.7 percent. Android rose 10 percent, from 48.3 percent to 58.3 percent, while RIM fell 11.7 percent to 5.1 percent of the UK market. iOS gained only 0.1 percent, evening off at 29 percent. In Italy, the increase for Windows Phone was even bigger, from 5.4 percent last year to 13.1 percent this year, a change of 7.7 percent. Meanwhile, Symbian's hold on the Italian market fell from 17.6 percent to just 3.7 percent. Android jumped 6.1 percent to 57.1 percent of the Italian market.

While Windows Phone won't be number one anytime soon, the growth is promising, and Microsoft will no doubt be pleased that the OS is gaining traction. Windows Phone was launched in October 2010 with Windows Phone 7. Windows Phone 8 debuted on October 29, 2012.

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  • Ragnar-Kon
    I'm sure Microsoft is happy about the news.

    And looking down the road... I'm sure the next-gen XBox will drive Windows phone (and probably Windows 8) sales even further. People seem to like to have all of their devices work together seamlessly.
    Reply
  • Herr_Koos
    Good news indeed, maybe this will get more app developers interested in the platform.
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    Ragnar-KonI'm sure Microsoft is happy about the news.And looking down the road... I'm sure the next-gen XBox will drive Windows phone (and probably Windows 8) sales even further. People seem to like to have all of their devices work together seamlessly.As one who has win8 and WP8 I would have to say that they don't exactly work 'seamlessly' quite yet... but they do complement eachother pretty well, and there is at least a road map of integration with winBlue which ought to bring tighter integration and make more of the features cross platform.

    What's missing?
    1) some form of Airplay so that people like myself who have to do presentations can do them directly from the phone or RT tablet to a PC connected to a projector.
    2) The music app is terribly broken on both win8 and WP8... but in different ways. Hopefully the next version will make it useful.
    3) While you can sync files via Skydrive, I would love to have some form of network access so that when I am at home or the office I can browse the local network for content without having to upload it to skydrive first.
    4) Smartglass seems like a neat feature that would be really cool between the phone and win8... but it only works between the phone and xbox360, or the PC and xbox360. This needs to change.
    5) One of the coolest things about having a smartphone is being able to check out a website on a whim when you hear about something. We need some way to sync our bookmarks and page history between the phone and desktop. Having some sort of 'push to desktop' feature would be cool too in IE.
    6) A really awesome 3rd party app (PC Remote) allows me to use my phone as keys and mice for my HTPC, which is AWESOME! We are also getting ready to use it as a baby monitor so that we can check if the kiddo's are sleeping from our phones. Something like this (at least the keys/mice) needs to be integrated into the OS itself, and tie it to user accts so that it is more secure than PC remote is.
    7) I log into my phone with my Microsoft acct, and I log into win8 with it as well... so why not have some bleed-over of settings and preferences?

    Don't get me wrong, MS has gotten a ton of things right on WP8 and it's ability to work with MS services and win8... but there is just some room to grow. If given the choice again I would still pick my Lumia 920 over the SGS3, no regrets here!
    Reply
  • Bloob
    Interesting title, when Nokia makes 80% of the Windows Phones sold.
    Reply
  • bhaberle
    This ^
    Reply
  • Herr_Koos
    10602807 said:
    Interesting title, when Nokia makes 80% of the Windows Phones sold.

    They probably meant Symbian, but yes, it is a bit confusing.
    Reply
  • cjlindman
    just got my WP last week, and i really like it. i agree with the fellow above that there's a long ways to go in terms of cross-platform integration though; some things that seem so completely obvious still aren't there yet, like being able to mirror your PC's outlook settings and information on your phone. still, good news! it's a great OS and deserves recognition.
    Reply
  • spentshells
    This doesn't really show much of anything.

    2.7 percent of the U.S. market ????? what market the sales market? The usage market? The repair market? This is "article" is missing details on a very grand scale.

    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    BloobInteresting title, when Nokia makes 80% of the Windows Phones sold.I deliberately went out of my way to get the Samsung Ativ S, best phone I have ever used, basically SGS3 hardware but I prefer the WP8 OS
    Reply
  • WhyFi
    Geez, don't go out of your way to provide an accompanying photo that depicts current-gen hardware/software.
    Reply