The latest smartphone sales data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech for the quarter ending September 2013 show continued strong growth for Windows Phone across all of Europe, where double digit sales are seen in UK, France, and Italy, with these countries getting 11.4 percent, 10.7 percent, and 13.7 percent respectively.
Windows Phone even surpassed the iPhone in Italy with 13.7 percent versus iOS’s 10.2 percent, though this is before the launch of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. Still, sales don’t seem to be slowing so while Apple may make a rebound, it’s likely that Windows Phone will surpass it even more as time goes on.
In the United States, Android dropped 2.5 percent, while BlackBerry dropped an additional 1.2 percent, continuing its long and steady decline. Overall iOS and Windows Phone grew, with 1.3 percent and 1.9 percent respective growth in the period. This is significant, as Windows Phone has struggled to gain mindshare and market share in the U.S., so these growth numbers represent a significant change.
In China, Android sales in that country have grown by nearly 15% in one year with BlackBerry, iOS and Windows Phone all dropping by 0.1 percent, 6.4 percent, and 2.0 percent, respectively.
Windows Phone is up 1.3% in Latin America year over year while Android has increased 23 percent and iOS increased 2.2 percent. BlackBerry, however, continued posting a decline with a huge 9.2 percent loss in the quarter.
“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,” Dominic Sunnebo, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel said. “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.”
“The majority of consumers in Latin America still own a Nokia featurephone and upgrading to an entry level Lumia is a logical next step.”
It certainly appears that Windows Phone is finally starting to gain worthwhile market share and here’s hoping that this could lead to some equally worthwhile support from many calling and messaging apps who refuse to release all features and even entire apps for Windows Phone devices.
The full Kantar results (PDF) are shown below.
