14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Phone is currently the fastest-growing mobile operating system out there, with a 91 percent increase year on year, mainly due to the popularity of entry-level devices running under it, it seems.
Yesterday, Microsoft revealed that during the first day of its Worldwide Partners Conference, confirming that Nokia Lumia 520 was still the top-selling smartphone running under the Windows Phone operating system.
Since launch, the mobile phone has moved over 12 million units (combined sales of all models, including the Lumia 521 at T-Mobile), which makes it the best-selling smartphone in its category, as Microsoft COO Kevin Turner said.
Other Windows Phone devices have proven highly popular among end users as well (even some aimed at the mid- or high-end of the market), yet none of them has managed to get even close to Lumia 520’s success so far.
However, as Winbeta notes, Microsoft has decided to replace the older smartphone with a new one, in the form of Nokia Lumia 630, which went official in April, though it remains to be seen whether it will be able to surpass the Lumia 520 in terms of sales.
One of the main issues that Lumia 630 will face in terms of hardware specs is the fact that it comes to the market with only 512MB of RAM inside, the same amount that Lumia 520 features.
However, the new handset runs under the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system right from the start (Lumia 520 will receive the update soon), and is also larger than the older phone, which could prove to be great advantages in its attempt to attract users to its side.
According to Kevin Turner, Nokia’s portfolio of Windows Phone smartphones is impressive, and the success that Lumia 520 is enjoying is clearly proof of that. Moreover, this also shows that users are interested mostly in cheap Windows Phone devices.
While Nokia currently dominates the Windows Phone space, things will certainly change very soon, especially at the entry level of the market, as more mobile phone makers out there are getting ready to release their own devices running under the platform.
Handset vendors such as BLU, Micromax, XOLO, and others have already made the move, while Karbonn, Lenovo, Gionee, ZTE, Huawei, HTC, LG, and others are expected to follow suit before the end of this year.
However, although most of these companies might focus on the release of cheap Windows Phone devices, it remains to be seen whether any of these will manage to perform as great as Lumia 520 has done so far.