What’s the current Windows Phone landscape look like? There’s really no better way to tell than by looking at the data from AdDuplex. The cross-promotion network for both Windows Phone and Windows 8 gives us insight that we might not get from places like IDC or comScore. We’ve got the report for this month and so far the biggest trend for this month is that the Lumia 520 continues to dominate.
Telling numbers. Cheap Lumia’s dominate the Windows Phone market, with flagship devices taking a backseat. On top of that, Nokia absolutely owns Windows Phone now – more than 90% of Windows Phone devices currently in use are Nokia’s. This means that effectively, Windows Phone is now a Microsoft platform in both software and hardware, which comes as no surprise since HTC and Samsung aren’t really feeling it anymore.
Also interesting is that Windows Phone 7 is still quite important – almost 25% of Windows Phone devices run 7.x. This means that if application developers want to focus on the latest and greatest alone, they’ll have to forego 25% of the already relatively small Windows Phone userbase.
So, 90% of the Windows Phone market…. what is that, like 5 phones? Bahaha!
More like 10, a 100% sequential increase.
2. Then they laugh at you
3. They forget about you
4. You slide back to irrelevance
It is growing.
Most people that use the Phones that I have spoke to say that they like them. I know it is ancedotal, but I think that is definitively positive considering most people at work either earn an iPhone or a Samsung.
3.6% world wide market share now. Microsoft had 3.4% in Q4/2010. 0.2% more since Nokia went all in. Growing is probably the wrong word even if technical correct.
Edited 2013-11-30 13:02 UTC
You’re using Gartner 2010 numbers and comparing them to IDC numbers. Also those numbers include Windows Mobile handsets, Windows Phone had much smaller share back then.
Also in major regions and developing regions, WP is growing.
Use any recent Nokia for a few days, and you will understand why Windows Phone userbase is growing not because of the ad campaigns, but via word of mouth. They are incredibly well done devices, solid phones, crafted to make sure every feature in them works well.
WP8 has issues, we all know it. The app ecosystem isn’t as mature as Google’s or Apple’s, but there are no holes in it, and every service that doesn’t have an official app has a high quality third party app. The key thing to note here is that buying a WP device now doesn’t make you an early adopter anymore.
The WP platform will rise. Because Nokia made a huge push, and it’s paying off now. Because Microsoft is moving in the same way they did with Xbox, making a dent in an already established market. And because WP users are happy.
Disclaimer: I bought a Lumia 920 just because I could get it at a huge discount. I expected little more than a feature phone with a great camera. I was very wrong.
You got a WP phone because you wanted _a_ phone and could get a discount. You set the lowest bar for a phone and _surprise_ you were pleasantly surprised.
My plan was to use the 920 until the new Nexus came out, then give the 920 to a family member. I ended up keeping the 920, and advising everyone I know to forget about low end and midrange Chinese Android phones. Go high, or go Nokia.
I’ve personally gone Moto G. Quality build and specs, low price, and I prefer Android.
To be perfectly honest, the stunt that they’ve pulled with Windows 8 trying to leverage it to gain traction in mobile markets does not exactly encourage me to buy anything related to them unless I can’t avoid it.
As always, YMMV.
You won’t try buying a good product because you don’t like their corporate marketing strategy? Why should the user of the phone care? People at my work are converting in droves from Android to Windows phone because of the reliable ease of use. Stick with Android and you need to keep scrolling through all of those unsorted rows upon rows of icons and dealing with constant unresponsive app crash notifications.
I currently have a Samsung S3 Mini, mainly because in Gibraltar they don’t sell a lot of Windows phones.
A lot of people that do have a Windows phone in gib, do like them.
So I think there is some truth in what you are saying.
Got the latest Windows Phone update for my Lumia.
Was ell excited, but after I applied it, the only really worthy feature of Windows Phone that sets it apart from the rest disappeared. Battery went from lasting 4 days to 1 and half.
It must be the only Phone OS that removes features instead of adding them when updated.
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS24442013
http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/14/gartner-456m-phones-sold-in-q3-55-…
http://www.canalys.com/newsroom/quarter-billion-smart-phones-ship-q…
http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/News/Nokia-and-Windows-globa…
At this point the momentum is undeniable.
I’m not really sure if it’s the success of Windows Phone as much as people’s trust in Nokia.
I’m inclined to think it’s the later because a) most of the sales were from the cheap models, which are sturdy as hell (The 620 is strong like a brick). b) other Windows Phone vendors got zero interest.
It will be interesting to see if they can keep the momentum once they lose the Nokia brand, as the Microsoft brand is not nearly as strong.
I think Q1 and Q2 of 2014 will go a long way towards answering that question.
If Microsoft can replicate Nokia’s momentum in house with their resources then things might get interesting.
I’m hopeful because its Nokia employees led by Nokia executives heading the devices division within Microsoft.
Edited 2013-11-27 01:14 UTC
Yeah, I don’t have any doubt that they can pull products of the same quality because historically Microsoft approach to hardware was always very solid (Except the original 360 I guess).
But Nokia was recently the brand for those who just don’t care about smartphones and would rather have a feature phone, they made themselves a name by manufacturing unbreakable feature phones with extremely good quality components.
Where I live (Buenos Aires), Lumia 520 and 620 were extremely successful, but none that I know that is even remotely tech savvy owns one (and I work on the software industry), they avoid it like the plague.
Instead, Lumias are owned mostly by middle aged people or young people with zero relationship with technology. If I ask them why they did choose the phone, they’ll answer proudly that It’s a Nokia phone, that it’s reliable and it will last for a long time.
So, besides this not being exactly a good scenario (consumers that buy nokia want it to last for an eternity, instead of renewing every 2 years), I’m not sure Microsoft losing the Nokia brand is a good idea, because it is perfectly clear at this point that people is more interested in Nokia than in Windows Phone.
So, let’s wait and see patiently..
Agreed. I think about how Microsoft’s purchase will impact Nokia’s momentum a lot, it’ll be interesting to watch.
I wonder why Microsoft didn’t just buy all of Nokia for a few billion more. Oh well.
Yes, Nokia sold more phones this quarter then last. But taking a percentage change in a market percentage can be very misleading when dealing with small players like Nokia – though the press certainly loves the underdog angle.
Apple actually had a larger increase in number of phone sold than Nokia – and this in the quarter *before* the iPhone 5 release, typically the calm before the storm.
The jump in Android sales was, of course, massively larger than Nokia’s.
So while Nokia sales are definitely trending in the right direction, they are still losing ground in raw numbers. The next few quarters will tell if Microsoft can buy enough market share for their new division to stick around, or if the rash of new platforms landing next year will steal their momentum. Or whether the market will become Android and debris (God forbid!).
Listen to what you’re saying: The jump in Android (a collection of OEMs licensing the same OS) was massive compared to Nokia (a single OEM).
Break Android figures down into individual OEMs and you’ll see that Nokia is growing faster than the other top OEMs and has been doing so for the past year.
As I sourced, every major analyst can acknowledge that these numbers are good for Windows Phone. Why can’t you?
Nokia *is* Windows Phone. Every other significant vendor has abandoned the platform.
So comparing Nokia / Windows Phone to iOS / Apple to Android / Everyone Else is hardly unfair. And of the three, Nokia / Windows Phone had the smallest increment in actual sales.
IDC (certainly a “major analyst”) publicly reported this data. Can you accept it?
I think Nokia enjoys the highest proportion of sales because they have the most fleshed out portfolio and put in the most effort.
I don’t think the door is closed on Windows Phone as a viable OS for other OEMs in the future, but for now Nokia is doing the trail blazing here.
I think its purpose is only to inflate Android numbers, and I disagree with the comparison when its done in the context of iOS vs. Android as well.
Nokia may use Windows Phone, but at the end of the day they are still just one OEM. And an OEM which is no longer a market leader at that. That’s why expecting them to post Androidesque YoY gains is impossible and unrealistic. Of course that probably suits your point of view which is why I suspect you jumped on it.
I included IDC as a source in my original comment, along with Gartner, comCore, KWP, and Canalys.