According to Gartner, Microsoft’s mobile operating system, Windows Phone has seen a slight increase in its user base around the world. In the third quarter of 2012, Microsoft’s amount of the smartphone market was 2.4 percent which amounts to 4.058 million smartphones sold. This is a gradual increase from 1.5 percent a year ago, implying that a mere 1.7 million smartphones running an OS by Microsoft were sold in the third quarter of the previous year.
But these stats for Microsoft are way below the ones for table-toppers, namely Android and iOS. Android, a mobile OS by Google, accounts for a huge 72.4 percent of the smartphone market which also underlines its pole position by selling more than 122 million mobile devices run on Android. Android also saw a vast increase in its market share when compared to the previous year with 52.5 percent share and more than 60 million devices sold.
Apple’s iOS chips in second on the table with 13.9 percent market share in the third quarter of 2012, reports Gartner.
Surprisingly, Symbian by Nokia has a higher market share than Windows Phone by Microsoft, reporting for 2.6 percent or 4.404 million devices sold. After a mutual agreement with Microsoft, Nokia has ditched Symbian as its primary mobile operating system and instead opted for Windows Phone.
Having been launched just recently, Windows Phone 8 is going strong with an amazing lineup of devices like Nokia Lumia 920 and HTC 8X. With more manufacturers joining the ship and impressive first-hand sales figures, we’d bet on Windows Phone to increase its market share for the fourth quarter.
