Windows passes BlackBerry in European phone market share
WINDOWS Phone has overtaken BlackBerry to become the third most popular smartphone platform across Europe’s five largest markets, including the UK, data from Kantar Worldpanel showed yesterday.
In the UK Windows Phone captured 12 per cent of smartphone market share in the three months ending August 2013, up from 4.5 per cent in the same period last year, but still short of Android (56.3 per cent) and Apple’s iOS (27.5 per cent).
Windows Phone overtook BlackBerry, which fell from 10.1 per cent in the same period last year to 3.7 per cent this year.
The news comes just weeks after Nokia sold its mobile devices division to Microsoft.
“Windows Phone’s latest wave of growth is being driven by Nokia’s expansion into the low and mid range market with the Lumia 520 and 620 handsets. These models are hitting the sweet spot with 16 to 24 year-olds and 35 to 49 year-olds,” said Kantar director Dominic Sunnebo.