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Windows Phone doubles share in Europe, trails iPhone by only 1% in Germany
- babuskov 13y agoSince when is 80% increase "doubling"? 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 13y agoWindows Phone is simpler and more consistent than any of them.
- Gustomaximus 13y agoWindows Mobile market share is a long way off 8.8% according to Statcounter: http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-DE-monthly-201209-201309 http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-DE-monthly-201209-20130... 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!
- rl12345 13y agoTrue, 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.
- pedalpete 13y agoThere may be something funky with Statcounter, when looking at North America, they show Blackberry as doubling it's growth since May, doesn't seem like the most reliable source. http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-na-monthly-201209-201309 http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-na-monthly-201209-20130... Also, its Windows Phone, or WP, not Windows Mobile.
- OrwellianChild 13y agoThis is consistent with product launches... Blackberry released the Z10 smartphone in May 2013. The Statcounter data tracks usage, which would plausibly go up quite a bit with new users on a phone with more fully-featured internet access. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_Z10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_Z10
- cwoods 13y agoThe 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.
- Joeri 13y agoThose 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).
- Touche 13y agoAs the article points out, has to be the low to mid-range phones. The Lumia 520 costs $100 off contract, which is an amazing deal.
- drill_sarge 13y agoDon't forget iPhones are way more expensive here (in EU) than in the US.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- rbanffy 13y agoI'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".
- skrebbel 13y agoActually, that would be S40
- Topsteed 13y agoIt'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. There's no news here, no surprise.
- innino 13y agoThanks for contributing to Hackernews.
- ethana 13y agoHow are these kind of commenters even exist on hacker news?
- adamnemecek 13y agoIt's OP's first comment. I'm guessing that it's an alt of another user?
- kintamanimatt 13y agoWell, anybody can register for an account and no community is immune from trolls. They don't last long here though and there's some pretty decent moderation that happens both by the mods and the community itself.
- WasimBhai 13y agoDude, that is racist. Calm down.
- lolololololo 13y agohttp://i.imgur.com/OfqdZeE.jpg http://i.imgur.com/OfqdZeE.jpg
- pedalpete 13y agoI don't want to feed the troll, but I'm wondering if Topsteed will be selling all of his Apple products http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/10/tim-cook-power-50-list-out-magazine http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/10/tim-cook-power-... C'mon Topsteed, if you're going to live like a Neanderthal (no offence to Neanderthals), may as well get rid of all your technology and leave HN (and the internet) alone. Who calls themselves Topsteed?... oh, that's too easy, just go get therapy.
- acchow 13y agoThis 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.
- cremnob 13y agoWhenever you see a story about market share, it's for a quarter.
- marcosdumay 13y agoDepends on how the shares are measured. The ones that use web sites logs are for the total of the devices in use, for example.
- superails 13y agoI 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.
- acchow 13y ago"more of a sham than marketing would lead you to believe" In what sense? Some very reliable reviewers (e.g. Brian Klug) say the camera truly is incredible...
- superails 13y ago5MP downsample, resolution falls well short of what a 38MP camera should (theoretically) be capable of, runs windows phone 8 (fewer apps), phone has awkward shape not shown in commercials, low screen resolution, and as the following review puts it: http://www.everyjoe.com/2013/07/13/technology/nokia-lumia-1020-sucks-review/ http://www.everyjoe.com/2013/07/13/technology/nokia-lumia-10... "You might think that despite all of these negatives, at least the Lumia 1020 blows all other phones out of the water when it comes to the camera. You’d be wrong. There’s a noticeable lag when between taking a picture, saving it, and being able to take another picture. The Lumia 1020 comes with three different camera apps, each with their own function, so good luck figuring out what does what. Annoyingly, every photo you take has an on-screen caption that reminds you which app took the photo, but at least it doesn't show up in the picture itself"
- leggo2m 13y agoMicrosoft PR department trying real hard in recent days trying to drum up some positive press.
- Avitas 13y agoCustomer: "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."
- cremnob 13y agoInteresting to note that iOS gained share in the US by 5.4% while Android declined by 5.6% in a quarter without new iPhones launching. There may be some truth to Horace Dediu's hypothesis that Android has peaked in the US.
- smegel 13y agoIs this because Android is more dominant than both of them?
- zyb09 13y agoThis 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.
- Joeri 13y agoWhere do you live? Smartphone marketshare is highly regional. I live in belgium and see them all the time.
- Greenisus 13y agoAnd how you able to tell the difference between the 4 and 4S? Are you looking at the seams in the antenna?
- zyb09 13y agoyeah iPhone 4's have a line on top, while 4S's don't. Easy to see when someone is holding it in their hand.
- rlu 13y agoI don't know. I went to Europe for all of June and saw a lot more Windows Phones than I do in the U.S. Particularly in Italy.
- spongle 13y agoYour 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.
- jonemo 13y agoWeird 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.
- sgloutnikov 13y agoShouldn'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.
- mittsh 13y agoAgreed. 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.
- Alterlife 13y agoI've been using a Lumia 620 for the last three months, and I have really tried to like it. 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.
- inoop 13y agoI'll trade you a working blade for that 620. Your choice of white, black, or gray. I even have an OLED screen lying around :)
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- Alterlife 13y agoIn an ideal world where cost of a product is directly linked to the actual value it delivers... I would have gladly taken that offer ;) .
- qwerta 13y agoWindows Phone are actually very good if you want 'no apps, just phone'.
- tsotha 13y agoIf you don't want apps, why are you paying more than about $30 for your mobile?
- strager 13y agoInternet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, or Safari.
- thomasz 13y agofor the browser, map, skype and facebook.
- zmmmmm 13y agoIt 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.
- ohwp 13y agoI'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.
- mercer 13y agoI'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.
- Tloewald 13y agoWhat's amazing to me is how apple has resisted the temptation to go for market share with the iphone. That said, apple got and sustained a dominant share of the music player business against everyone's expectations and without compromising on quality (although i don't see apple doing an iphone shuffle). It might be that microsoft's success with windows was the aberration. After all DOS and then windows were inferior products that achieved critical mass and widespread success because IBM got them into the enterprise and apple was asleep at the wheel.
- mercer 13y agoHmm. I think much of Microsoft's success has more to do with the fact that Apple's emphasis on simplicity in design, ease of use, and computer-as-a-lifestyle-product has only recently started paying off, as computers have become more mainstream and provide 'lifestyle value'. I remember growing up a really shoddy looking computer in the house, but nobody cared or wanted better because it was in my dad's office and mostly used for work (and only occasionally for a game or two).
- biehl 13y agoA 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"
- touristtam 13y agoMake it even "Windows Phone sales in the last 3 months double in Europe. Share of new sales trails iPhone by only one percent point in Germany". Always makes me twitch when I see statistical simplification in the headlines.
- huxley 13y agoOr perhaps, "Windows Phone sales in the last 3 months double in Europe based on estimate derived from interviews of consumers" Cite: http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/30/windows-phone-doubles-share-in-europe-trails-iphone-by-only-1-in-germany/ 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."
- AnilaRashid 13y agoThen they should play iOs new game Feed Your Bird :)
- Tyrannosaurs 13y agoSo 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.
- ZeroGravitas 13y agoI 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.