This is share of sales in the last 3 months, not share of devices in the wild. It's no surprise that iPhone's sales share plummeted the last quarter before the 5S release.
I think it is the Nokia Lumia 1020/EOS, which I've heard is more of a sham than marketing would lead you to believe. I have to admit when I've seen the commercials, I wanted one also.
I'm quite sure you can carefully select the market your research covers as to make any given platform lead. For instance, Windows Phone is the absolute leader in phones whose brands start with "N" and end with "okia".
That said I could believe the sales growth as Nokia are know for making great quality low end devices so there could be traction gained here as the allure of flagship phones is not as appealing/affordable for all as base technology improves.
IMO the best thing WM could do is create a phone that works more as a mobile base station for all your computing in the way Ubuntu Touch are attempting. The latter launching in a couple of weeks. Can't wait to try it out!
True, but the smartphone market could be considered as a leading indicator for the whole mobile one. What caught my attention is that MS is/was being considered as a dead horse in this race by a lot. Well, dead they are not.
Those statistics are for usage instead of devices, include tablets and not just phones, and sidestep people who don't have a data plan (a more common situation for low end smartphone buyers in europe vs the US).
The stats are sales over the last 3 months, not install base. However, Statcounter tries to measure usage, not unique devices. Netmarketshare tries to measure individual browsers/devices.
For example, if you browse 10 sites in a day on an Android phone, but your neighbor browses 990 sites a day on her iPhone, the Statcounter numbers with just you both being counted will be 1% Android and 99% iPhone even though the install base is 50% each.
This is the reason that Statcounter and Netmarketshare browser share numbers are so different from each other, with Statcounter showing Chrome in the lead and Netmarketshare showing IE in the lead.
I've got the feeling the iPhone lost its cool here in the Netherlands. Suddenly the buzz is all about Nokia and HTC while Samsung and Apple are becoming less popular.
And I think I can understand why. The Nokia 520 is a great device for under € 170. And the HTC has a great screen, stereo sound and a very smooth designed Android version.
I'm thinking that perhaps the temporary (but lengthy) period in which the iPhone was the most popular phone was, for the most part, an aberration.
Apple generally just does it's thing where it doesn't go for the largest market share, but because they were unusually innovative/lucky with the iPhone, they had a period of popularity. The fact that the iPhone 5C isn't the cheap phone we expected seems to confirm this.
It seems quite possible that things are 'normalizing' again, and Apple will end up comfortably occupying a big chunk of the high-end space. Maybe they're trying to come up with another killer product category to dominate in, but I wouldn't be surprised if internally this isn't and hasn't ever been their goal.
Now, investors might feel different, of course, and I find that interesting to observe.
Shouldn't be such a surprise to anyone. Nokia has always done well in Europe. It's a trusted, recognized brand, with lots of credibility, and they had actually just started to deliver again (Lumia 1020 & amazing lower end phones). The road-map for windows phone looks good too.
I will admit--I have owned Windows Phones (now a 1020) only because of Nokia, and I am content with them. Sure the 1020 doesn't have all the bells and whistles from a software perspective, but the hardware is amazing and WP8 has been out for only a year. Really interesting to see how things will go with the Microsoft buy-out in the next 1-2 years. Some key people leaving, etc.
PS. I have grown up with the legend of the "indestructible Nokia" that cannot be killed. Let's see if Microsoft can do it.
Agreed. Nokia always had a nice reputation in Europe – like Samsung has in S.Korea – and it just wasn't justified at all during the Symbian era. But trust from customers is still there.
Almost all the stories about "Windows Phone" doing well in various markets, suggest that it's actually Nokia's brand that's doing all the work. A brand that Microsoft won't be allowed to use on future smartphones if the purchase goes through. That's got to be a worry.
So WP seems to be taking market share from which seems to be almost exclusively from "Other" (presumably Win Mobile and BB).
iOS and Android are largely either growing or holding steady (varies by country - Android could be seen as flat lining but then you look at China where it had 9% growth which suggests that might be a bit of a premature accusation).
So, we seem to have a market place with three players - Android, iOS and Windows Phone.
The question is can the market support that or will there be a drive to a single platform?
Personally it feels I can do most of what I do without worrying what device I have in front of me or what it's running and I don't think twice what device someone else has before e-mailing them, sending them a document or whatever. The days of having to use something similar to someone else to be able to interact seem long gone.
So it seems to come down to whether any particular platform can remain profitable for it's owner, for device makers and for software developers. Right now the answer to that seems to be yes for Android and iOS and maybe for WP, but it doesn't feel like there's any reason to believe that there's any inevitability about any of them dying out.
Customer: "Our global market share is a pimple on the ass of our competitors. Are there any numbers ANYWHERE that can make us look like, at the least, a full-blown cyst?"
Marketing Exec: "Sure, let's look at the numbers. US...no. EU...no. Asia...no. Africa...no. Middle East...no. Austral--"
Customer: "Stop. Just stop."
Marketing Exec: "It's okay, getting your message and name out there is far more important than the actual numbers. Plus, we'll find positive numbers and trends that we'll plaster in the occasional release. We also still have the stats on individual countries to go through."
Customer: "Okay, let's go down the list and pick some. We've got our astroturfing contractor waiting."
A less misleading headline would probably be "Windows Phone sales in the last 3 months double in Europe. Share of new sales trails iPhone by only 1% in Germany"
This must be bullshit. Not that I have scientific evidence, but as a app developer I got quite good at identifying a device type just by having a quick glance at it and that's what I usually do to keep me busy in public transport and other places.
What I see is about 50% iPhones, the majority being iPhone 4, not so many 4S, but also quite a few iPhone 5. Next up are Samsung phones of all kinds, with the prevalent being S3, S2 and low budget ones like the Ace. Not so many S4 though yet. HTC and everything else are kind of the underdog. And very rarely someone pulls out a BlackBerry.
But Windows Phone? I think I've seen one so far. I don't doubt there are out there, but comparing the share with the iPhone is ridiculous.
Your average Starbucks in London, UK over the last month seems to have the following market share: couple of ipads, single iphone, couple of Samsung android handsets and a lot of windows phones, all Lumia. To be honest I'm quite surprised myself even as a WP user. You see chromebooks a lot as well. Not seen a single surface (yet).
As a side point, I get a lot of people ask me what to buy after they threw £450 on a 4S and broke it (I'm the local informal tech advice guy for the school my kids go to's population of parents). The iphone doesn't have a great reputation in the UK after the first purchase from experience: it's expensive, unreliable (icloud is a piece of crap) and breaks easily and every repair place is dodgy including the apple stores here. This makes it a really bad investment. I don't suggest a solution in particular but people come back with Lumia handsets over new iPhones as they are much cheaper and are functionally equivalent. Either that or they buy a shit android and hate it.
All of my friends have yachts, so everyone in the world must have one or two. All statistics are bullshit, personal experiences are always valid though.
Not in France. I don't have a car so I take the bus and the regional train a lot. Most people there have either a dumb phone or an old & cheap Android or Blackberry. At my driver's license courses, I was surprised that at least 3 people had a Windows Phone (the cheaper models). iPhones are for rich people.
In countries where people buy their phone without a contract attached, there is a real market for a <100€ device. The cheaper the better.
Not to be "single data-point guy", but including mine, there are 3 in the technology group at work. And maybe 3 iPhones, with 5 or more Androids rounding it out.
The phone has a few nits (the single volume control being #1 on my list) but on the whole I like it. Partly because I got a little burned out on iDevices (3 iPhones over the years) and wanted something different, but also because of the camera (I have a 928, which I got like 2 weeks before the 1020 was announced - bad timing). I took some photos at a backyard party the other night, and the low light performance is excellent.
I like the look of the phone, and I'm hoping that Microsoft turns some of the Nokia designers & engineers loose on the Surface, and give it some style.
I guess "trails Android by only 70% in Germany" wasn't considered a catchy enough headline.
A 5 point increase from last year is certainly positive, but I think Microsoft is going to spend a lot of money to sustain that, and it's only going to get harder when they stop using the Nokia brand for smartphones.
Whatever Nokia was asking for those rights, Microsoft should probably have paid.
Still, getting close to 10% of market share is really a "massive achievement". I did not expect that. I wonder what was the main reason for people to buy it. I mean, if you're not a programmer/developer and you enter the store and see Lumia, SGS4 and iPhone4/5, how does the average customer select?
Weird way of reporting the stats (as others in this thread seem to imply) or not, just walking around in Germany is enough to realize that Windows Phone is comparatively popular there. It's very present both in real users' hands and advertising. I wonder if focusing on ROTW markets is Microsoft's strategy.
It would be sad if the only thing giving them even that share is the Nokia brand and perception that it's European. MS may have killed off the only thing Windows Phone actually had going for it in europe.
It's because Europeans are a bunch of idiots. They're dumb enough to let gays ruin their society and their dumb enough to use Windows Phone instead of the vastly superior iPhone.
[+] [-] acchow|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] superails|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cremnob|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Touche|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drill_sarge|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rbanffy|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Gustomaximus|12 years ago|reply
That said I could believe the sales growth as Nokia are know for making great quality low end devices so there could be traction gained here as the allure of flagship phones is not as appealing/affordable for all as base technology improves.
IMO the best thing WM could do is create a phone that works more as a mobile base station for all your computing in the way Ubuntu Touch are attempting. The latter launching in a couple of weeks. Can't wait to try it out!
[+] [-] pedalpete|12 years ago|reply
Also, its Windows Phone, or WP, not Windows Mobile.
[+] [-] rl12345|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Joeri|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cwoods|12 years ago|reply
For example, if you browse 10 sites in a day on an Android phone, but your neighbor browses 990 sites a day on her iPhone, the Statcounter numbers with just you both being counted will be 1% Android and 99% iPhone even though the install base is 50% each.
This is the reason that Statcounter and Netmarketshare browser share numbers are so different from each other, with Statcounter showing Chrome in the lead and Netmarketshare showing IE in the lead.
[+] [-] ohwp|12 years ago|reply
And I think I can understand why. The Nokia 520 is a great device for under € 170. And the HTC has a great screen, stereo sound and a very smooth designed Android version.
[+] [-] mercer|12 years ago|reply
Apple generally just does it's thing where it doesn't go for the largest market share, but because they were unusually innovative/lucky with the iPhone, they had a period of popularity. The fact that the iPhone 5C isn't the cheap phone we expected seems to confirm this.
It seems quite possible that things are 'normalizing' again, and Apple will end up comfortably occupying a big chunk of the high-end space. Maybe they're trying to come up with another killer product category to dominate in, but I wouldn't be surprised if internally this isn't and hasn't ever been their goal.
Now, investors might feel different, of course, and I find that interesting to observe.
[+] [-] sgloutnikov|12 years ago|reply
I will admit--I have owned Windows Phones (now a 1020) only because of Nokia, and I am content with them. Sure the 1020 doesn't have all the bells and whistles from a software perspective, but the hardware is amazing and WP8 has been out for only a year. Really interesting to see how things will go with the Microsoft buy-out in the next 1-2 years. Some key people leaving, etc.
PS. I have grown up with the legend of the "indestructible Nokia" that cannot be killed. Let's see if Microsoft can do it.
[+] [-] Alterlife|12 years ago|reply
Switched back to my 2 year old android ZTE blade with a cracked screen two days ago. I feel like I just got an upgrade.
Nokia used to make great phones... and I still love the hardware. but the windows phone package leaves much to be desired.
[+] [-] mittsh|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ZeroGravitas|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Tyrannosaurs|12 years ago|reply
iOS and Android are largely either growing or holding steady (varies by country - Android could be seen as flat lining but then you look at China where it had 9% growth which suggests that might be a bit of a premature accusation).
So, we seem to have a market place with three players - Android, iOS and Windows Phone.
The question is can the market support that or will there be a drive to a single platform?
Personally it feels I can do most of what I do without worrying what device I have in front of me or what it's running and I don't think twice what device someone else has before e-mailing them, sending them a document or whatever. The days of having to use something similar to someone else to be able to interact seem long gone.
So it seems to come down to whether any particular platform can remain profitable for it's owner, for device makers and for software developers. Right now the answer to that seems to be yes for Android and iOS and maybe for WP, but it doesn't feel like there's any reason to believe that there's any inevitability about any of them dying out.
[+] [-] leggo2m|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Avitas|12 years ago|reply
Marketing Exec: "Sure, let's look at the numbers. US...no. EU...no. Asia...no. Africa...no. Middle East...no. Austral--"
Customer: "Stop. Just stop."
Marketing Exec: "It's okay, getting your message and name out there is far more important than the actual numbers. Plus, we'll find positive numbers and trends that we'll plaster in the occasional release. We also still have the stats on individual countries to go through."
Customer: "Okay, let's go down the list and pick some. We've got our astroturfing contractor waiting."
[+] [-] smegel|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] biehl|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] huxley|12 years ago|reply
Cite: http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/30/windows-phone-doubles-shar...
"... reflects the latest three months of actual smartphone sales, which the research company gets by interviewing actual consumers."
[+] [-] touristtam|12 years ago|reply
Always makes me twitch when I see statistical simplification in the headlines.
[+] [-] zyb09|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spongle|12 years ago|reply
As a side point, I get a lot of people ask me what to buy after they threw £450 on a 4S and broke it (I'm the local informal tech advice guy for the school my kids go to's population of parents). The iphone doesn't have a great reputation in the UK after the first purchase from experience: it's expensive, unreliable (icloud is a piece of crap) and breaks easily and every repair place is dodgy including the apple stores here. This makes it a really bad investment. I don't suggest a solution in particular but people come back with Lumia handsets over new iPhones as they are much cheaper and are functionally equivalent. Either that or they buy a shit android and hate it.
[+] [-] sz4kerto|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hrvbr|12 years ago|reply
In countries where people buy their phone without a contract attached, there is a real market for a <100€ device. The cheaper the better.
[+] [-] rlu|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Joeri|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Greenisus|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chiph|12 years ago|reply
The phone has a few nits (the single volume control being #1 on my list) but on the whole I like it. Partly because I got a little burned out on iDevices (3 iPhones over the years) and wanted something different, but also because of the camera (I have a 928, which I got like 2 weeks before the 1020 was announced - bad timing). I took some photos at a backyard party the other night, and the low light performance is excellent.
I like the look of the phone, and I'm hoping that Microsoft turns some of the Nokia designers & engineers loose on the Surface, and give it some style.
[+] [-] Tloewald|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] acchow|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ZeroGravitas|12 years ago|reply
A 5 point increase from last year is certainly positive, but I think Microsoft is going to spend a lot of money to sustain that, and it's only going to get harder when they stop using the Nokia brand for smartphones.
Whatever Nokia was asking for those rights, Microsoft should probably have paid.
[+] [-] babuskov|12 years ago|reply
Still, getting close to 10% of market share is really a "massive achievement". I did not expect that. I wonder what was the main reason for people to buy it. I mean, if you're not a programmer/developer and you enter the store and see Lumia, SGS4 and iPhone4/5, how does the average customer select?
[+] [-] miguelrochefort|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jonemo|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] qwerta|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tsotha|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zmmmmm|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cremnob|12 years ago|reply
There may be some truth to Horace Dediu's hypothesis that Android has peaked in the US.
[+] [-] AnilaRashid|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Topsteed|12 years ago|reply
There's no news here, no surprise.