Windows Phone 8 Hits Third Place in Smartphone Market, Says Kantar Report

April 2, 2013
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Windows 8 might not be selling like hotcakes just yet, but its marketshare does continue to grow as time passes. This is even more true for its cellular brother, Windows Phone 8. While Windows Phone 7 had a reasonable following it was nowhere in the same league as Windows Phone 8.

A large part of early Windows Phone 8 success can be attributed to Nokia and its Lumia 920, but other partners like HTC have helped as well.

I’ve mentioned many times before that I think Windows Phone 8 has potential to become a solid 3rd place holder in the mobile market and now they’ve done it in the United States, at least for the three-month period that ended with February 2013.

Windows Phone 8 managed to climb to 4.1% for this time period, versus 2.7% from the year before at the same timeframe. This might not be anywhere near the amount of marketshare enjoyed by Android or iOS – but it is still double where they were.

Windows Phone 8’s biggest rival for 3rd place is none other than Blackberry (formerly RIM). So where does Blackberry stand for the three month period? Last year at this time they enjoyed 3.6% of the market, which bumped down dramatically to .07% of the United States smartphone market.

Before we say too much about what that means for the future of Windows Phone or Blackberry, remember that Blackberry 10 devices weren’t around in the United States during this timeframe, so things could certainly change in the future.

Of course the UK’s 3-month period that ended with February would have included Blackberry 10 devices for about a month of the sales, so how did things look there? Last year there were at 16.8% of the market, but it dropped down to just 5.1%. Talk about ouch.

The war for third place is far from over, though. Blackberry still could kick Microsoft down again and then there are newcomers like Ubuntu, Firefox OS and Tizen that are looking for a piece of the pie as well.

The war might be waging on, but this much is clear: Microsoft is finally starting to win some very real battles, and it is hard to deny Nokia’s role in this success. What do you think of Windows Phone 8, how does it compare to the competition?

Additionally, do you feel that 3rd place is in the bag for Microsoft or will they eventually fall behind once more? Share your thoughts below.

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Microsoft

Mike Johnson is a writer for The Redmond Cloud - the most comprehensive source of news and information about Microsoft Azure and the Microsoft Cloud. He enjoys writing about Azure Security, IOT and the Blockchain.

All Comments

  • If the phone is free, I shall try WP8 after my current phone contract expired and the new contract is affordable.

    WillyThePooh April 3, 2020 6:15 pm Reply
  • If the phone is free, I shall try WP8 after my current phone contract expired and the new contract is affordable.

    WillyThePooh April 3, 2013 5:31 am Reply
  • I took a free one during a Microsoft store promotion last year. I took it as an expement and am totally hooked. If you value a smooth OS over an extencive app market, this is the phone for you.

    mossman April 4, 2013 8:18 pm Reply
  • It is hard to believe that WP won’t become popular. In the near future the PC, tablet and smartphones will be unified in a single OS and apps should be crossing these three devices transparently.

    shinkawa April 10, 2013 7:31 am Reply

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