Windows Phone shipments showed steady growth in the first quarter of 2013, taking 1.9% more sales share in the US than they did in the first quarter of 2012, according to a report from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
Despite accounting for only 5.6% of overall smartphone sales, this is a significant improvement over previous years, says Kantar Worldpanel ComTech analyst Mary-Ann Parlato. "As iOS and Android continue to battle it out for top-selling smartphone OS, we have seen Windows steadily grow over the past year and is now at its highest sales share figure so far."
The particular strength of Windows phones seems to be attracting first-time smartphone buyers who are upgrading from feature phones, continues Parlato. "Of those who changed their phones over the last year to a Windows smartphone, 52% had previously owned a feature phone. Comparatively, the majority of iOS and Android new customers were repeat smartphone buyers, with 55% of new iOS customers, and 51% of new Android customers coming from another smartphone."
This is significant in the US market, where many users have yet to upgrade to their first smartphone. "While the differences between these figures are small, with over half of the US market still owning a feature phone, it's likely that many will upgrade over the coming year, which will ultimately contribute to more growth for the Windows brand," Parlato notes.
Windows has also grown in European markets, particularly in regions where the legacy of its hardware partners is strong. Nokia has benefitted from the growth of Windows OS, rising from 1% of smartphone sales in Q1 2012, to 4% in 2013.
Meanwhile, Android was the best-performing smartphone OS, accounting for 49.3% of smartphone sales, but has shown slower growth compared to the same period last year. iOS is a close second at 43.7%, down from 44.6% in Q1 2012, while RIM (now BlackBerry) dropped from 2.6% in 2012 to 0.9% in 2013.
The data is obtained from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech USA's consumer panel, which tracks every aspect of consumers' mobile phone behaviours, including phone purchasing, source of purchase and phone usage. The panel focuses on sales shares within a limited period, rather than market share, to identify future trends.
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