Chinese Windows Phone market analysed, shows steep growth

WPDang, with the help of OpenXLive, a gaming social network only second to Xbox Live and which is allowed in China, unlike Xbox Live, have posted some data they extracted on the Chinese market from OpenXLive’s gaming sessions.

As can be seen from the above graph, while one certainly could not say, based on raw numbers, that Windows Phones are very popular in China, the growth trend has been dramatic.

Windows Phones were only officially introduced into the country in March 2012, and one can see the graph tilting up sharply after this.

It is of note that the revelation that Windows Phone 7.5 devices will not be upgraded to Windows Phone 8 in June 2012 has not slackened this growth at all.

WPDang notes that Nokia is completely responsible for supporting this growth, and that other Windows Phones in China by HTC and Samsung were not supported by marketing at all.  In return Nokia has reaped the reward, and now owns 76% of the Windows Phone installed base.

Also of note is that the cheapest and for most the least capable Windows Phone, the Nokia Lumia 610, has outsold all the others, and is now 22% of the Windows Phone market, followed by the Nokia Lumia 800 at 17% and the Lumia 710 at 16%. This demonstrates the viability of the low-end strategy and probably explains the Nokia Glory.

WPDang also notes that China Telecom only sold 4% of Windows Phones in China, indicating that the carrier-based retail channels are not the best route to growth in the country.

Read a lot more in the report which has been published in English here.