Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS has now cemented itself as the third most preferred operating system in leading markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom. This has largely been possible for Microsoft due to its key partner Nokia, whose Lumia range of devices powered by Windows Phone has been chiefly responsible in the paradigm shift. The impact has been so big that Windows Phone has replaced the earlier number three much quicker than expected, a position held for a long time by Canadian phone maker, BlackBerry.
Windows Phone 8, which was launched in October last year, has garnered an 8.4% share of the British smartphone market from February 1st till April 30th. The same period threw up figures of only 4.4% last year. BlackBerry’s sales have plummeted from 13.6% to 5.6% this year and this has happened even though the company had launched a new operating system and two new high end smartphones. Nokia has been the major reason for promoting the Windows Phone brand to such an exten,t mainly because the company has so many handsets with varying screen sizes and across various price ranges as well, a technique which has worked so well for the Android market.
The biggest market for Windows Phone is former Android users who jump ship from Android. Last year, most users who changed to a Windows Phone device were of the age group of 50-64 but the current trend of users who have shifted to a Windows Phone device recently fall in the age bracket of 25-34. 23% of the market has changed from an Android device to a Windows Phone device which is clearly a healthy poaching rate. Most importantly, Microsoft has managed to snag more than 40% of its new usersfrom feature phone upgrades.
But the room for such flagship phones is completely absent in the faltering economies of southern Europe in countries like Spain and Italy where the room for entry level smart phones have given an immense rise in revenue for smartphone makers like Sony and LG. The Sony Xperia U and the LG Optimus L3 and L5 are the highest selling devices in these markets because they cater perfectly to the increasing demand for smartphones under the €150 price tag. All information and statistics have been provided by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, which conducts over 240,000 interviews each year focusing on smartphone sales rather than market share.
