Just recently, we learned that Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform has doubled in market share and is currently the world’s fastest growing smartphone platform. Now, new data has emerged from Kantar Worldpanel, indicating that Microsoft’s mobile platform has gained momentum in emerging markets and has also overtaken Apple’s iOS in Italy.
“The latest smartphone sales data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, for the three months to September 2013, shows Windows Phone now makes up one in 10 smartphone sales across the five major European markets, has overtaken iOS in Italy, and is gaining momentum in emerging markets. Android remains the dominant operating system across Europe with 71.9%, an increase of 4.2 percentage points compared with the same period last year,” the report states.
Like we mentioned before, this is almost entirely Nokia’s doing. Windows Phone has gained momentum in emerging markets such as Latin America, and continues to make rapid progress in European countries. Nokia has dominated the Latin America smartphone market for many years, notes Kantar Worldpanel’s Dominic Sunnebo. The majority of consumers in Latin America apparently still own a Nokia featurephone, so it makes sense that the next logical step is to upgrade to an entry-level Nokia Lumia device. The Lumia 520 does a perfect job in that category.
In Great Britain, Windows Phone owns 11.4% of the smartphone market, yet is still overshadowed by Android’s 58.4% and iOS’ 27%.
Keep in mind that this data is up until September of 2013. With the holidays upon us, expect to see fluctuations when it comes to smartphone market share as consumers purchase cool new smartphones for themselves or their family members.
Further reading: Microsoft, Windows Phone
