Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 sold 1.6 million units in the first quarter of 2011, according to Gartner. Though this represents only “modest sales,” Nokia’s support for the new smartphone OS will help it move forward in the future, the research firm adds.
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Microsofts Windows Phone sold 1.6 million units in the first quarter, according to new data from research firm Gartner. The smartphones, which represent Microsoft’s attempt to take market share from the likes of Google Android and the Apple iPhone, originally made their debut in late 2010.
Windows Phone “devices launched at the end of 2010 failed to grow in consumer preference and CSPs [communication service providers] continued to focus on Android,” reads Gartners May 19 research note. However, “in the long term, Nokias support will accelerate Windows Phones momentum.”
Microsofts deal with Nokia will see Windows Phone ported onto the latters hardware. As Nokia begins to abandon its homegrown Symbian platform in favor of Microsofts offering, however, it could create an opening for the companies competitors to seize additional market share.
“This will precipitate a competitors rush to capture Symbians market share in the mid-tier,” Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, wrote in the May 19 research note. Should Google or Apple succeed, it could prove an unwelcome consequence to an agreement designed to bolster Microsofts and Nokias fortunes in the space.
Worldwide smartphone sales to end users by operating system in 1Q11 (thousands of units)
Source: Gartner
Gartner’s numbers (above) show that about 3.6 million phones with Microsoft operating systems were sold during the first quarter of 2011. This suggests that, ironically, Redmond’s earlier Windows Mobile 6.5 is still more popular than Windows Phone 7, despite regularly being criticized as obsolete. (Windows Mobile has a large application base and many enterprise-friendly features, so it obviously still appeals to conservative customers.)
Meanwhile, Microsoft is developing a substantial Windows Phone 7.5 update, code-named “Mango,” which will introduce a broad range of consumer and enterprise functionality, including the ability to search a server for email items no longer stored on the device, and share and save Office documents via Office 365 and Windows Live SkyDrive. “Mango” (below) will also include Bing Audio, which identifies any songs playing in the vicinity, and Bing Vision, an augmented-reality feature that lets a smartphones camera scan bar codes and QR Codes.
Windows Phone 7.5’s conversation view (left) and Lync capabilities (right)
Source: Microsoft
Despite the challenges facing Windows Phone, the past quarter was a good one for smartphones as a whole. “Smartphones accounted for 23.6 percent of overall sales in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 85 percent year-on-year,” Cozza wrote. “This share could have been higher, but manufacturers announced a number of high-profile devices during the first quarter of 2011 that would not ship until the second quarter of 2011.”
The current advantage lies with smartphones that offer a broad apps ecosystem. “Every time a user downloads a native app to their smartphone or puts their data into a platforms cloud service, they are committing to a particular ecosystem and reducing the chances of switching to a new platform,” she added. “This is a clear advantage for the current stronger ecosystem partners Apple and Google.”
Recent data from The Nielsen Company had six percent of consumers indicating they wanted a Windows Mobile/Windows Phone 7 smartphone as their next device, compared with 31 percent for Android, 30 percent for Apples iOS and 11 percent for Research In Motions BlackBerry.
Further information
The Gartner numbers cited in this story derive from the firm’s “Market Share Analysis: Mobile Devices, Worldwide, 1Q11” report, available on Gartner’s website for $1,295.