14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Phone platform is on the rise in Europe where Microsoft’s mobile operating system increased its market share by a few percent in several countries.
However, the status of Windows Phone in the United States is quite different. Many research companies have confirmed through their surveys that the mobile platform’s market share has decreased slightly in the first two or three months of the year.
The reason for this drop in market share may be the fact that Microsoft and Nokia did not launch new devices in the United States in the first part of the year, as both companies were focusing on completing the acquisition deal announced months ago.
Now that Nokia’s mobile division has become part of Microsoft, the Redmond-based company is expected to announce and launch more Windows Phone handsets in the next couple of months.
Until then, Windows Phone enthusiasts can keep themselves entertained with the first Windows Phone 8.1 handsets available on the market, the Lumia 630 and Lumia 930.
For the time being though, it doesn’t seem like Windows Phone’s market share in the United States will increase too much given the lack of new devices.
According to the latest research statistic published by Comscore, Windows Phone’s market share in the US has actually increased slightly in the first four months of the year.
From the total of around 168 million people in the United States that own smartphones, no less than 3.3% prefer Windows Phone handsets. This is a slight increase from 3.2% that Windows Phone owned at the beginning of the year.
This means that no less than 5.5 million people in the US now use Windows Phone handsets, which might sound like a huge number, but compared with the total amount of smartphone users, it’s very low.
The US smartphone market is a tough one and when it comes to devices, Apple continues to dominate with 41.4% market share, followed by Samsung with 27.7% and LG with just 6.5%.
However, when it comes to platforms, Android is the clear winner with 52.5%, followed by iOS with 41.4% and Windows Phone with 3.3%. As expected, the loser is BlackBerry, which dropped from 3.1% market share in January to only 2.5% in April.