Nokia Now Leads in Windows Phone Sales

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia needed only four months to become the top Windows Phone manufacturer in the world.

Nokia Lumia 800, the company’s first Windows Phone device arrived on shelves in November last year, followed by Nokia Lumia 710 one month later.

Now, Strategy Analytics is reporting that Nokia is the world’s number one Microsoft smartphone vendor. This is the first time this has ever happened.

“Nokia overtook HTC and others to become the world’s largest Microsoft smartphone vendor with 33 percent market share,” Alex Spektor, associate director at Strategy Analytics, said.

“Nokia’s global Microsoft smartphone shipments hit 0.9 million units, as distribution of its Lumia family expanded across numerous countries and operators.”

Overall, sales of Windows Phone devices are still small, although the global smartphone market continued to grow in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The increase in shipments of Windows Phone devices was of 36 percent, which helped them reach 2.7 million units, the latest research from Strategy Analytics shows.

Nokia took the lead in Windows Phone, pushing HTC to the second position. The Taiwanese mobile phone maker finds itself in a difficult position at the moment, since it also has to compete with Samsung on the Android segment.

“An expanded portfolio of Windows Phone 7 models such as the Lumia 800, an increased retail presence and highly visible marketing campaigns across several European and Asian countries drove Nokia’s growth,” Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, added.

“Nokia is by no means out of the woods yet, and it is still on a long road to recovery, but capturing top spot in the Microsoft smartphone ecosystem is an encouraging baby-step forward for the company.”

This year, Nokia will launch even more Windows Phone devices, being set to regain much of the market share it has been losing during the past few years. It already unveiled the high-end Nokia Lumia 900 at CES in January, and is expected to launch at least two new phones next week at MWC in Barcelona.