Kantar: In Europe Windows Phone grew as much as the iPhone Year on Year, taking share from Android

Kantar has now released their full Q1 2015 numbers for the 3 months ending March 2015, and in Europe it reads as good news for Windows Phone.

Overall the OS is up 1.8% Year on Year, adding as many new customers as Apple did over the same period.

Look at the sequential numbers, Windows Phone grew in Germany to 8.7% from 8.2% last month, up to 8% from 7.8% in UK, stable in France at a stinking 14.1%, stable at 14.4% in Italy, and still fading in Spain at 2.8%, for a total EU5 market share of 9.9%, slightly down from 10.1% in last month’s numbers.

In USA Windows Phone is down to 4.3% market share, and Kantar notes that 70% of Windows Phones in USA are sold via budget channels, noting:

“If we dig a little deeper, it is easy to see the strong value proposition that the Lumia portfolio offers, as Windows phone sales in the U.S. skew towards the prepay market (20%) and instalment plans (51%). Microsoft is betting that new Windows 10 functions and the ability for developers to easily port Android apps to Windows will make the Windows ecosystem more appealing.”

Urban China saw some small growth sequentially to 1.2%, Windows Phone is somewhat down in Australia to 7.3%, and up slightly in Japan to 0.4%.

Microsoft revealed that they sold 8.6 million Windows Phones during the same period, up 18% YoY, but lost $4 million for the quarter, and it seems clear that while they have a stronghold in Europe, Microsoft could be doing a whole lot better elsewhere.

See last month’s numbers here.