Latest Gartner numbers for Q1 2012 reveals few surprises

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Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 1Q12 (Thousands of Units)


Operating System

1Q12

Units

1Q12 Market Share (%)

1Q11

Units

1Q11 Market Share (%)

Android

81,067.4

56.1

36,350.1

36.4

iOS

33,120.5

22.9

16,883.2

16.9

Symbian

12,466.9

8.6

27,598.5

27.7

Research In Motion

9,939.3

6.9

13,004.0

13.0

Bada

3,842.2

2.7

1,862.2

1.9

Microsoft

2,712.5

1.9

2,582.1

2.6

Others

1,242.9

0.9

1,495.0

1.5

Total

144,391.7

100.0

99,775.0

100.0


Source: Gartner (May 2012)


imageGartner has released their smartphone market share estimates for Q1 2012, and now, 5 months into the new year, they do not reveal much new.

Total Windows Phone and smartphone sales have remained flat from Q4 2011 to Q1 2012, with 2.7590 million handsets sold in the holiday season, and 2.7125 million handsets sold in Q1 2012. Market share numbers remained static at 1.9%.

Of particular interest is that Nokia shipped around 2 million Windows Phones in Q1 2012, and with only 2.7 million Windows Phones sold that quarter, it suggests Nokia now holds around 66% share of the Windows Phone OEM market.

The numbers also show that Android has now become the operating system to beat, which is rather good news for Windows Phone, given that the quality of the Android ecosystem is rather poor to start with, making it not too difficult to create a compelling alternative.

Of note to regular readers is that Gartner’s numbers agree pretty well with our own projections based on Facebook Monthly Active Users, which at present predicts that sales will remain rather flat into Q2 also, but also that with around 12 million handsets in circulation Windows Phone is building a a sustainable market which should help reward developers who support it, and set a reasonable foundation for  Windows Phone 8 in the near future.

Source: Gartner numbers via Telecomlead.com

More about the topics: gartner, market share, sales, windows phone 7.5