Windows Phone has Greater Market Share than iPhone in China
Lo and behold, just two months after the launch of Windows Phone in China it has captured greater market share than iPhone has occupied for last couple of years. Not much time has passed since Windows Phone started to gain market share in the UK, and a few days ago we saw a rise in its market share in some European countries as well but now it looks to be doing the same in the world’s largest market too i.e China. This is a pretty interesting worldwide trend and will be a source of serious concern for Apple.
According to the Dutch publication Emerce, 7% of the smartphones in China are powered by Windows Phone which is a little above the market share of Apple , standing at 6 %. Android’s market share, at a staggering 68%, remains largely unaltered. While 7% of the Chinese smartphone market may not seem much of an exciting figure, however it is an impressive statistic if you take into considering that about eight weeks ago, not a single WP-powered device was up for sale in China. Growth of this speed has only been seen witnessed in one other market thus far which is Finland, Nokia’s own backyard. Reports also indicate that WP is gaining market control in Russia as well.
Similar sentiment were echoed by Michel van der Bel, COO Greater China Region at Microsoft who said:
“We have only just begun….Our smartphone and tablet-pc are hybrid, making them suitable for the consumer, but also easy to insert within an existing company infrastructure. This will allow us to better anticipate the consumerization of IT than many competitors. “
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This is somewhat of an unforseen turn in the smartphone market scenario as Windows Phone were never expected have offered much of a competition to the two heavyweight, Apple and Android. That is because as an OS, Windows Phone lacks in apps and choice of devices and the slick Metro UI, though simple and unique, is an acquired taste and does not appeal much to the masses. However, with Windows 8 on the horizon and the fact that if developers start to switch to Windows Phone Marketplace from their previously preferred platform, Microsoft might be able to achieve some say in the direction of the smartphone market.
As much as Microsoft would like to brag about these statistics, these growth figures should be taken with a grain of salt because there are indications that the original source might may have misunderstood these statistics to mean the entire market where in fact they were meant for just one operator.
