14 DAY TRIAL // Loaded on Nokia’s Lumia devices, Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform started to regain market share in the past year, the latest reports on the matter unveiled.
Global shipments of Windows Phone devices grew to 5.1 million units in the second quarter of the year, accounting for 3.2 percent of the smartphone market, recent data from Canalys unveiled.
The increase is impressive when compared to the platform’s performance in the second quarter of the last year, when only 1.3 million units were shipped, accounting for 1.2 percent of the market.
On a yearly basis, Windows Phone showed growth of 277.3 percent, which is more than encouraging for both Microsoft and its hardware partners.
However, the platform still has a lot to go before it can measure up against Android and iOS, currently the leading platforms on the smartphone segment.
Both of them enjoyed growth in Q2 2012, and increased their market share on a yearly basis. Android sits at the top of the market with 68.1 percent share, 107.8 million devices and a growth of 110.4 percent when compared to the same period last year.
Apple’s iOS registered a 28 percent growth year on year, now accounting for 16.4 percent of the smartphone market with 26 million sold devices, Canalys reports.
Research In Motion’s BlackBerry platform dropped to only 5.4 percent market share, with 8.5 million devices sold, a decrease of 32.1 percent when compared to the second quarter of the last year.
Symbian has lost even more market share, now accounting for only 4.1 percent of the market, although it had a 16.8 percent market share last year. Only 6.4 million Symbian devices were sold in the three-month period ending June 30, a decrease of 64.6 percent from last year.
“Growth in Android volumes of 110% far outpaced growth in the overall market of 47% year-on-year, heavily driven by Samsung, which saw Android volumes of over 45 million, contributed to by a full and broad portfolio of products, from its high-end flagship Galaxy S III down to its aggressively priced Galaxy Y and Galaxy Mini,” Pete Cunningham, Canalys principal analyst, stated.
