# facts | Windows Phone for beginners

Today we will get acquainted with not quite ordinary facts. Consider not technical, but analytical information about the four main mobile platforms. We learn about the audience among the most popular smartphones based on the Windows Phone operating system. In addition, let's talk a little about the achievements of the Android platform, which left iOS far behind. Do not forget the iPhone, whose success depends on the specific market. Ahead of the reader is not waiting for a quick user guide for the operating system, but for knowing how an unobtrusive platform can become a powerful contender for current leaders.

Success of mobile market leaders

The data are calculated for a 12-week period, which ended with the second summer month, July. This period roughly corresponds to three months or a quarter taken arbitrarily. An analysis of the situation was carried out on the pages of the TechCrunch resource in Ingrid Lunden’s article “Kantar: Android covered 65% of sales in major markets in the past quarter; Windows Phone is growing, attracting ordinary phone users. ”

According to Kantar WorldPanel Comtech, Android accounts for 65% of all smartphones sold in the nine leading markets in the world. These include countries such as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United States, Australia, China and Mexico. The success of the "android" platform is largely due to the popularity of the phones of the South Korean company Samsung, which is believed to be going to promote the Tizen OS platform in order to reduce dependence on Google.

As for Apple, it has very heterogeneous indicators. In some countries, particularly in Spain, the position of the Cupertino company is incredibly weak: the iPhone accounts for only 6 percent of the smartphones sold during this period. In the US, the Cupertino team boasts a figure of 43%. On average, in nine countries, sales of iOS smartphones account for 26.3% of the total volume of devices sold in this class.

The growing interest in the Windows Phone platform is ensured by the high reputation of Microsoft’s main partner in the production of mobile devices. This is about Nokia. 4.4% of smartphones sold during this period in nine major markets are Windows Phone-based smart phones. In the US, its share was 3.5% of total sales, showing some growth; in Europe, the share of sales of “vindofonov” doubled compared with the previous year to 8.2% of the total number of similar devices. In China, the share of Windows Phone has fallen by half compared to last year and was only 2.2%.

Kantar data is significantly different from those published by well-known research firms - IDC, Gartner and Strategy Analytics. Gartner and Strategy Analytics recently noted that the share of Android in the second quarter of 2013 accounted for 80% of the total number of smartphones sold. However, in this case we are talking about the world market as a whole, and not about nine countries.

According to analysts, 52.7% of “android” sales accounted for Samsung devices. This represents 35% of all smartphones sold in the nine markets in question.

Brilliant growth strategy for Windows Phone

Kantar highlights the main reason for the growth of Windows Phone. Android and Apple iOS attract former Symbian and BlackBerry users. This is a considerable audience. But the Windows Phone target group is much broader. These are users of regular “dialer” phones. 42% of “Vindofonov” buyers purchased a smartphone for the first time.

According to Gartner, "dialers" or, as they are commonly called, functional phones in the second quarter of this year accounted for 48.2% of all mobile phones sold. Buyers of these simple phones are not yet tied to any of the well-known mobile platforms. Dominic Sunnebo, an analyst at Kantar, notes:

When changing the phone, 27% of Apple and Android users change the operating system. Android and Apple account for the lion’s share of headlines; they continue to dominate smartphone sales. It is very easy to forget about the existence of a third operating system, which turns into a real rival.

The fact is that in the world there are a huge number of mobile subscribers, for whom the word “smartphone” means almost nothing. But they, no doubt, heard about the Microsoft Windows computer operating systems. And these users, when they begin to show interest in smartphones, most often do not need expensive models.

The analyst notes that cheap smartphones (like the Lumia 520) currently account for about one in ten smart phones sold in Britain, France, Germany and Mexico. Domenic Sunnebo makes an interesting explanation:

For the first time, the platform ranked second in one of the world's leading markets: 11.6% of sales in Mexico.

BlackBerry positions are becoming weaker and weaker. In the US, these once-glorious smartphones account for 1.2% of sales. In the five main markets of Europe (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain): 2.4%. The company's position of deadlock and government assistance BlackBerry can not count.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/phone/fakty-windows-phone-dlya-novichkov.html.