Kantar Worldpanel's statistics show WP has gained big sales increases in Europe for the three months to the end of September. Market share in Great Britain has more than doubled to 11.4%.
And in Italy, WP has overtaken Apple iPhone iOS to put it in second place to Android.
Here are the details:
Here's the Kantar press release:
Worldwide, Android is still the dominating force, but it appears iOS could be on the wane. And Windows Phone has well and truly overtaken BlackBerry for third place.Windows Phone, driven almost entirely by Nokia sales, continues to make rapid progress in Europe and has also shown signs of growth in emerging markets such as Latin America.
Dominic Sunnebo, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, comments: “With the smartphone market in developed countries so congested, it is emerging economies that now present manufacturers with the best opportunity for growth.
“Nokia dominated in Latin America for many years, and while its popularity declined with the fortunes of Symbian it now has an opportunity to regain the top-spot. The majority of consumers in Latin America still own a Nokia featurephone and upgrading to an entry level Lumia is a logical next step. Price is the main barrier in developing markets and the budget Lumia 520 opens the door to smartphone ownership for many.”
In Britain, Windows accounts for 11.4% of the market. Android is still the number one operating system with 58.4% while BlackBerry now only has 3.1%. Apple’s iOS has dipped by 1.0 percentage point to 27.0%, although it is expected to strengthen at Christmas.
Sunnebo explains: “August is traditionally a quiet month for Apple as consumers wait for the release of new models, and strong sales of the iPhone 5S and 5C at the end of September did not manage to make up for the lull. The full impact of the new iPhones will be seen at Christmas when iOS is expected to bounce back strongly in Britain, the US and Australia.”
WP has even had a significant increase in market share in the US, a market it's found hard to crack in the three years since it was launched as the successor to Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system.
As Kantar points out, most of the WP success can be put down to Nokia Lumia smartphones. It will be interesting to see just how Microsoft cashes in on this increasing market share when it finalises its buy-out of Nokia's mobile division early next year.
Lumia has become a smartphone brand to be taken notice of. Let's hope Microsoft keeps up the momentum that Nokia has successfully started.
(Source: Kantar Worldpanel)
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