No Joke: Kantar February numbers show strong Windows Phone gains, Blackberry Z10 UK launch falling flat

Reading time icon 2 min. read


Readers help support MSPoweruser. When you make a purchase using links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Tooltip Icon

Read the affiliate disclosure page to find out how can you help MSPoweruser effortlessly and without spending any money. Read more

UK Jan-13 Feb-13
iOS 30.6 29.0
Android 56.2 58.3
RIM 5.8 5.1
Symbian 0.8 0.6
Windows Phone 6.2 6.7
Bada 0.3 0.3
Other 0.1 0.1

Windows Phone has continued to make strong gains in most markets, according to the latest Kantar WorldPanel figures for the 3 months ending February 2013.

The OS  continued to gain market share in Germany, where it hit 6.8%,  maintained its performance in Italy, where it managed 13.1%, and even in the US market hit 4.1% share, driven by good Nokia Lumia 920 sales,  for the first time exceeding its Comscore share, indicating hopefully that that number will also start rising.

Its in the UK where we have the most interesting results however.  As can be seen in the table above, Windows Phone has continued to gain share in UK, despite the launch of the Blackberry Z10 into their strongest western market.

Windows Phone crested at 6.7%, up from 6.2% a month ago, while Blackberry lost share to 5.1%, down 12% from 5.8% a month ago.  At that rate it will not take long for that OS to become extinct in the market.

Dominic  Sunnebo global consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, explains: “The launch of the BlackBerry Z10 has not resulted in an immediate turn around for the Canadian company in Great Britain. Although the new model received great reviews, it’s going to take time for BlackBerry to see share gains. Consumers just don’t have the same levels of pent up demand for the handset as they did for the iPhone 5.

“Over the past few years it has been BlackBerry’s budget devices, like the Curve 8520 and 9320, which have been selling well and these attract a young, price sensitive consumer. The Z10 is a high-end handset with a price to match, so going after its existing base of consumers will require a significant trade up. The handset is likely to start selling in more serious numbers once the launch price falls, and BlackBerry 10 in general, when the range is padded out with a number of wallet-friendly mid-range offerings.”

Good news for Nokia and its margins is that its sales are now being driven by their Windows Phone 8 handsets.  Good news for Windows Phone also is that the gains have not only been driven by Nokia, which had a 5.6% market share, but also by good sales of the HTC 8S.

See the full set of numbers after the break.

image

More about the topics: kantar, sales, uk, windows phone

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *