There are many differences between the UK and the US; chips vs fries, colour vs. color but one intriguing difference is that by the end of 2015 there may be over half as many Windows Phone users in the UK than in the US despite having 135 million less mobile phone users. The vast difference stems from a combination minimal growth in the United States and stable growth in the UK from an already somewhat steady fanbase.
A post by eMarketer.com focuses mainly on the falling number of users that are on the Blackberry platform in the UK but also projects mobile phone growth throughout the UK. The estimates are based on large amounts of data and trends and suggest an upward trend for the Windows Phone. EMarketer estimates that there will be 3.3 million Windows Phone users in the UK out of 38.3 million mobile phone users by the end of this year. That comes out to an 8.5% market share in the UK.
That’s a stark contrast to the United States market share for Windows Phone which according to comScore was at 2.3% in 2014. There are 174 million users of mobile phones in the United States but only 5.9 million of them use Windows Phone.
The struggle of Windows Phone is well documented but it’s often overlooked that in countries other than the United States Windows Phone is doing well and improving. The projections from eMarketer have Windows Phone users reaching almost 4 million by 2017. There are many factors that go into which phone users by. Possible contributors to Windows Phone being more popular in the UK are stronger brand recognition and market and culture differences.
The Nokia brand has a strong presence in Europe and brings brand recognition to some of the most popular Windows Phones. Microsoft removed the Nokia name from their Lumia line of phones after its massive Nokia purchase last year but there’s a chance that Windows Phone has already made a strong enough foothold that a name change won’t lower recognition.
In the UK Windows Phone seems to be treated differently than in the US. Mobile network giant EE regularly features Windows Phones on their advertisements and stocks a full line of Lumia products. From my experience of moving to the UK people don’t view Windows Phone as lesser class when compared to iPhone and Samsung devices. There’s also a chance that since it’s approaching a point in which one in ten mobile phone users have Windows phones that it is not viewed as unusual or unpopular.
