14 DAY TRIAL // Apple's iOS platform is still the second mobile operating system worldwide, while Android is still number one with few chances to lose the crown as the OS with the largest market share.
However, it appears that Microsoft's Windows Phone gained a lot of traction due to Nokia's push in various markets, mostly European and Asian.
It's no secret that Windows Phone has recently switched places with BlackBerry and has become the number three operating system in the United States, but Microsoft's platform is still far behind Apple's iOS, which is ranked number two in this market.
With only 4.8% market share in the United States, Windows Phone does not seem to have a chance against iOS, which accounts for 40.8% of the smartphone market, according to Fortumo's latest survey published by Pocketgamer.
Still, that doesn't mean that Windows Phone can't sell better in other markets. In fact, Fortumo's survey has confirmed that, as of December 2013, there are 24 countries where Windows Phone is outselling Apple's iOS.
In order to have a bigger picture of the OS market share, there's a very interesting infographic published by Fortumo, which mentions that Windows Phone only outperformed iOS in 7 countries in March 2013.
There's a huge jump in less than a year and we can safely assume that at the moment the number of countries where Windows Phone is outselling iOS has increased.
We can confirm that in Romania, which hasn't been included in the survey, Windows Phone has outperformed iOS this year.
The reason that Windows Phone is now outselling iOS in many countries is the fact that smartphones are much cheaper than Apple's and customers have more devices to choose from.
Among the 24 countries included in this research, we have noticed India, Mexico, Finland, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Italy and many more.
Another reason for which Windows Phone seems to be the preferred operating system for many customers in these markets is carrier billing.
Given the fact that many customers do not have access to a credit card, they prefer to purchase a smartphone that offers them the possibility to pay apps via carrier billing.
Windows Phone does offer carrier billing in many of these countries where the platform's market share is rising, but this feature is not supported by iOS and goes against Apple's App Store guidelines.
We expect Windows Phone's market share to increase even more once the first WP8.1-powered smartphones hit shelves in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more updates on the matter.