Windows Phone has a new leader in the market, with HTC being over taken by Nokia. The numbers come from Strategy Analytics, who also claim that Microsoft’s big bet with Nokia is paying off with an increase of 36 percent in shipments.
While the iPhone and Android ship more phones, the 2.7 million number shows some signs of life in the operating system (which I’m happy – since a two-man race isn’t as interesting as a three- or four-man race). Nokia itself captured one-third of shipments in the last quarter of 2011 – big news since Nokia launched the device in late October and only available in a small number of European territories.
However, Nokia and Windows Phone still have a long way to go. Nokia particularly has to recapture some status in the mobile realm, as both Samsung and Apple continue to dominate.
“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,” Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics said.
But what about HTC? HTC is struggling – in both Android and Windows Phone. In fact, they had two quarters of falling smartphone sales, and announced going ‘back to basics’. No one knows what that actually means, but HTC might double down with Android.
The Lumia 800 is coming to Australia in March, but Mobile World Congress is coming next week and Nokia has a press conference. So we’ll keep our eyes out on the product announcements from the Finnish smartphone makers.