Published in Mobiles
Microsoft's mobile market share comes from cutprice phones
by Nick Farrell on01 October 2013
From Nokia
Microsoft's Windows Phone platform is growing and it has reached a 9.2 percent share in the smartphone operating system (OS) market. Apparently this is all being driven by Nokia's low and mid-range models.
Market research firm Kantar said during the three months before August, the Windows Phone platform reached a market share of over 10 percent for the first time in France and Britain. In the UK it had 12 per cent of the market. Kantar analyst Dominic Sunnebo said that Windows Phone's latest wave of growth is being driven by Nokia's expansion into the low and mid-range market with the Lumia 520 and 620 handsets.
He said that these models are hitting the sweet spot with 16 to 24 year-olds and 35 to 49 year-olds, two key groups that look for a balance of price and functionality in their smartphone. Android, which runs on Samsung and Sony smartphones among others is still the market leader in key European markets, which include Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
Android's market share increased to 70.1 percent from 68.8 percent in the same period last year. Apple's iOS was the second-biggest platform with a 16.1-percent market share, 2 percentage points more than last year. BlackBerry, which earlier this month agreed to go private, saw its market share more than halved to 2.4 percent from 5.8 percent.
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