This article is more than 1 year old

Symbian smacked by Windows Phone

Nokia deals the blow

Microsoft's smartphone operating system, Windows Phone 7, is now outselling Symbian - and it's all thanks to former Symbian stalwart, Nokia.

In February 2011, Symbian accounted for 12.4 per cent of the UK smartphone market. A year on and its share had drooped to 2.4 per cent. WinPho, on the other hand, has risen to 2.5 per cent from 0.5 per cent. The figures come from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, a market watcher.

The much-hyped Nokia Lumia 800 took 87 per cent of WinPho sales, Kantar said. Germany remains the strongest market for WinPho, with its share there now up to 3.1 per cent.

That said, in other Western European countries - Germany, France, Italy and Spain - while Symbian's share has plunged, Microsoft's hasn't risen to anywhere near the same extent as it has here.

No, the big gainer, across the board, is Android. Its arch-rival, Apple's iOS, has grown in some territories - the UK, Italy and France - and fallen in others - Germany and Spain, but neither rises nor falls reach double figures, unlike the Google operating system.

In the UK, Android accounted for 48.5 per cent of the smartphone market, well ahead of Apple's 28.7 per cent, up from 22.7 per cent a year ago. Google's February 2011 share was 37.8 per cent.

RIM's BlackBerry came in third with 17.1 per cent, down from 24.4 per cent in February 2011, Kantar's numbers show.

In the US during February 2012, the market is more evenly balanced between Apple and Google: their shares are 47 per cent and 43.4 per cent, respectively. iOS' share was up from 23 per cent a year ago; Android's was down from 55.1 per cent. RIM took 5.7 per cent of the market, down from 12.9 per cent. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like