comScore report illustrates slow adoption of Windows Phone in the US

comScore has released data for the three-month period ending January 2013, showing Windows Phone still battling hard against the popular iPhone in the US. Microsoft has a marathon to endure when it comes to consumers in North America, who are already set on either Android or iOS. Blackberry continued to fall at the end of 2012, but Windows Phone is hanging on (if not growing steadily looking at just how much the platform has dropped).

The above table reveals Windows Phone catching up to BlackBerry, and while Microsoft did lose 0.1 percent, it's not a negative look on how the platform is progressing. We're seeing an increase in smartphone owners, as well as changes with both Apple and Google (check out Android's -1.3 point change). Microsoft and partners are actually doing a relatively good job. There's obviously still room for improvement, however.

The Nokia Lumia 720 and Lumia 520 Windows Phones that were both announced at Mobile World Congress, have yet to launch in the states, which will further boost the platform with more affordable Windows Phone 8 hardware to boot. The Lumia 520 will be the cheapest Windows Phone from Nokia, and we bet it'll be a popular choice among consumers in many markets, including the US.

Should the growth rate of Windows Phone continue to increase at the rate we're witnessing, it'll look to be a strong climb when the platform begins to capture shares of the market in favour of quick bursts with subsequent drops. We're content with what the above chart shows. It could be worse. We could be in BlackBerry's position with a continuous down spiral.

It's worth noting that these numbers are before BlackBerry 10. It'll be interesting to see how the new hardware will help BlackBerry prevent Windows Phone from leapfrogging the tasteful fruit. That said, we're also missing out on a strong 2013 start for Windows Phone, which will also be detailed in the next report.

Source: comScore; thanks, aaa6112, for the tip!

Rich Edmonds is Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him over on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.

108 Comments

we're screwed.
No we aren't, new phones, new firmware, new apps, things will improve
WP8 and its lack of support for full HD displays and quad-core processors created a marketing buzz-kill when up against the HTC One and Galaxy S4. That doesn't help. Lack of certain apps is a problem also. Thankfully Cellica Database was just released for WP8 last month. Now I can finally upgrade to WP. Many others are still waiting for their required app.
Slightly inaccurate. Nobody knows about the quad core in the HTC One or Galaxy S4 yet nor do they know about the 1080p displays. The phones haven't been released yet.
The stat is for subscribers and the fact BlackBerry is still higher than Windows Phone is more reflective of BlackBerry owners holding out until their company replaces their phone more than anything else. I don't know anyone who bought a BlackBerry device in the past year of their own choice.
WP8 supports 64+ cores. It's only the manufacturers not putting more cores in
Idiot only asking for more cores, where the dual core can do it well.
The chart is misleading as it doesnt show how many devices are being sold... it doesnt mean we are screwed it just means we arnt selling as many devices (we could have lost more than .1 marketshare)
Isn't that score for both WM and WP, if so the .1% lost could be accountable for WM. I remember that last quarter it was a .4% or around there the real change will come when WM is completely gone.
I know of zero WM devices being sold in the US, we need to stop making excuses like that it just sounds stupid now.
This data does not represent sales, but existing device base.
Yep, so all those WM devices that are not replaced by windows phone devices are negatives to the platform.
I think the figures are disappointing though, especially as pre-WP8 there was a dip in subscribers so they should have shot up. But looking at the statistics before for WP it was the mid/low end devices that sold the bulk of units, the 920 might be a star and doing well for a high end phone, but its going to be the 620 and 720 that sell in large numbers.
With Blackberry not releasing until later this year it will be Q3 before we get clear results there, but another 2 quarters like that and WP gets third place by standing still.
Actually Blackberry is going to find itself surrounded byt the Galaxy SIV fever before they can sell a decent amount of phones.
Well WP is not catching well with the consumer in the US, neither did Android initially, other markets arond the globe will be more important for Windows than the US, although they will try to boost the sales in the US, but the US is not an early adopter market for phones.
Countries like England, Spain, Italy, China or Korea are more prone to try new products and also Nokia never had a strong name in the US while it keeps it's name in Italy or China quite intact.
Italy went over a 13% of WP marketshare recently with a high succes with the Lumia 920, and it's a country that tend to show future trends, and Lumia 920 would sell much more in China if the production was stronger but Nokia can't catch up, they had a wrong production strategy trying to protect themselves from bankrupcy.
IN the end I personally believe that there is no Space for WP and Blackberry right now, and I cross my fingers that balckberry crashes, it would make things much more easy, there is other marjkets in the world were things are better but WP needs a lot of inprouvement.
I bet the Galaxy SIV is going to be a killer phone, and we still don't even have a proper multitaking or read properly java, and other programing languages.
I agree with your sediments on the S4. That phone along with the HTC One will only increase market share. Microsoft shot themselves in the foot by limiting hardware and eliminating the draw of a "killer device" on their platform when they chose not to support full HD displays and quad-core processors. It's not functionally needed, but it is for marketing purposes. The other problem is lack of certain apps. I need Cellica Database. I have 5 phones and have been waiting over a year for that app to come to wp before I would switch to wp. It finally did last month and now I can make the switch with all my phones. Others are waiting or buying other platforms because their required app is not yet available also.
Can somebody show me the last time they've seen marketing that marketed dual-core processors? I'm sorry but people need to understand techie interests aren't the same as general interest. People continue to fail in understanding as long as Sprint isn't offering any sort of WP device the numbers will never grow quickly unless Apple & Samsung drop the ball in epic proportions.
I still sell WM devices to my customers. Scanners run WM.
for the month of Jan 2013 WP sold only 40,000 less devices than adnroid, these stats of marketshare are pretty misleading and dont show a proper picture in regards to the actual userbase.
Lmao
Considering the entire smartphone customer base is growing, the chart shows that WP pretty much kept on pace with overall customer growth. That's both good and bad. Bad: WP didn't gain extra market share Good: The number of actual users is growing This looks like it will be a long, steady, process. In tech, things can change radically in just a few months. So the fact that MS is still in this is a good sign. I don't think MS is facing the same problems it did with WP7, where they were battling a bad rep. I think now it's more about convincing people that there's another viable alternative.
True. So according to the chart we will have 3 more years till market growth is really high and WP is not sold anymore :)
You don't think MS is now battling a bad rep like they did with WP7. Right, because the problems with synching playlists, album art, and Xbox music, and the problem with other storage doesn't create a bad rep. All the folks who have commented on these forums on their reluctance to recommend Windows Phone to anyone or that they themself are leaving the platform, I guess they don't realize that, that MS no longer has a rep problem with Windows Phone 8.
Not in the same way it was before. Before, MS was pretty easily painted as an "evil" company that made a mobile OS that was far from user friendly. Now, they are more consumer friendly. They've been doing a good job of fixing their image. However, as you mentioned, some services have a very BETA feel to them. But that isn't hurting the MS rep so much because most people understand that it's part of growing pains. Android has many problems also. But users who enjoy the platform understand that perfection doesn't exist. One doesn't have to be flawless to have a good rep.
Unfortunately with the miniscule growth in the US, a lot of american-centric institutions haven't fully appreciated how quickly WP is taking off in Europe and elsewhere. I'm talking about ground level staff & developers at places like Microsoft and Instagram. We are adding a percent or so every month according to Kantar in the UK. But if Microsoft and developers don't keep up with the pace, this will start declining back down again.
There definitely has been good momentum with the applications coming to Windows Phone, it looks like Europe is driving demand for now. I think when Verizon gets their 920 varient and the 620/720 appear on sale things will step up a gear in the US.
Wow - must be the only page where a loss of market share is named good since the rest losses more - except of the ones that gain :)
LOL I'm at loss here. There must be growth, but how does this comScore report show it?
I know. Talk about rose-tinted glasses! This clearly shows WP has failed to date in the US. All WP8 devices were launched in this timeframe. I can't imagine anyone at Microsoft or Nokia is celebrating this news and I wonder if some heads will roll.
US market will be the laggard, I expect the rest of the world is growing much faster
I can't imagine anyone at Microsoft should be shocked or disappointed, based on their lack of urgency in addressing system problems, their lack of creativity in building WOW features to attract ios/android users, and their lack of creativity in marketing the uniqueness /benefits of the platform.
I agree 100%
I'm pretty sure comScore includes Windows Mobile in their marketshare numbers. So there is really no way to tell whether WP lost marketshare or not without seeing the numbers split between WM and WP. But, I'm guessing with only a .1% drop, a majority of that was Windows Mobile users leaving. Just my guess though, I may be wrong.
sad enough that they would be leaving and not joining wp8...right?
That's what I was thinking, negative isn't growth, or even holding steady. :-)
It'll be interesting to see how things will change after VZW launches the 928...if they're really interested (as they've stated they are) in developing and growing the MS ecosystem like they did with Android, then WP will be just fine.
VZW is a BIG part of this equation. Nokia needs to figure out a way to get great carrier specific devices to Verizon without stepping on AT&T's toes too much. IMHO, WP8 devices should be seen in every retail outlet that sells wireless. Radio Shack (an Android barn atm) Best Buy and obviously all corporate stores. Visibility needs to come first. Then the inquiring public will do the rest.
AT&T could care less about anything not Apple...VZW has already made it clear that they want the third ecosystem and that they were fully behind MS with doing that.
As far as more retail...I agree with that and I think you'll see more of that as the 520/720 devices start hitting the smaller carriers, and the pay as you go plans.
Agreed. Every BB & RS I step into push Android phones first. Windows Phone ad spots are lovely, but visibility in retail stores is key. Throw in good sales staff (side-eye to Best Buy) and you have a winning combination. Hopefully the 520 & 720 will bring new blood to WP8 platform. We'll see~
The attitude of the reps does not equal the long term goal of att. Don't take that to heart as what executives of att want for the platform. Bias is not in their interest, the only thing that matters to them is sales and contracts.
I bought my Lumia 822 from Best Buy in December. I was encouraged when both of the sales reps had Windows Phones, and both were on their second WP devices, having upgraded from WP7. Patience is needed and I think WP has a great future. It may never get to number 1, but it will be in the mix for a long time to come. The new devices in 2013 will definitely give the platform another boost.
I will say that the rep who I bought my L920 from (ATT Corporate) was extremely jealous. This was back in November. He was looking forward to ditching his iPhone 4S for a Lumia. I was surprised to say the least. It's encouraging, and honestly I don't think it would be happening without the hype that Nokia hardware brings
This was said about the current crop of devices. If new devices don't set the mobile world on fire later this year, will it then be 2014? I mean, I'm not suggesting these things happen overnight. But at some point, the excuses have to stop and it has to be pointed out that something MS is doing (or not doing) is just not clicking.
Unfortunately, the 928's specs are no longer state of the art with the One X and GSIV launching. WP8 needs the best specs to compete with high end devices.
Not precisely true. The HTC ONE and Samsung need those specs because Android is a fairly inefficient OS. It needs the horsepower just to run smoothly. WP 8, doesn't need the same kind of horsepower to run smoothly and well. iPhones run well without Quad cores and you don't hear people complaining about "slow" iPhones. Different OSes - different needs. That said, specs rarely sell devices. It's always other things like how good the screen is (which WP is still a bit behind in but not horribly so), or does it have my favorite app. That last one is more important than the other. Those are the things that MS needs to focus on to attract users, not simply raw specs.
I'm no math genius but 3.2% to 3.1% is 1% LOSS, not growth. And how the hell does BlackBerry still have nearly twice the market share than Windows Phone? Quite baffling to be honest.
Its actually a 0.1% difference, but I get what you're saying. :-)
Corporate users? Still a lot of those.
You are absolutely right about that, you are no math genius...
Correct, it's a loss which is reported by the chart. But you have to look at the factors that determines the fall in share. More subscribers are switching to smartphones, so that's more fish in the sea. Then you have the fact that while Windows Phone has lost some grounds regarding its share of the pie, it's not a massive drop. Check Android's fall, which is reported to be higher than Windows Phone. If it's losing less shares than the top dog, then surely that's viewed as not a gain of anything, but signs of steady growth?
Android dropped more than Windows Phone, but that does not mean Windows Phone GREW. They both FELL in share. Windows Phone just fell a little less. I just want to know where the comScore report shows growth? I haven't checked the source link but perhaps you've not posted the full report that shows more WP being sold than last year? There might be a lot of other factors in play here, but then again, the comScore report doesn't show that. All it shows is a DROP in share so I'd appreciate if the title of the post actually matches what's in it.
P.S You cann't compare Android's 1.5% drop with Windows Phone's 0.1% drop; the same way you cannot compare Windows Phone going from 1% to 2% and Android going from 60% to 61%. It's about RELATIVE growth and fall.
P.P.S Before someone calls me an Android troll or some crap, I'm not. I own a L920 and I love it to bits. But facts are facts.
That's definitely a fair argument. It would seem that the trail of thought from the mind did not transverse well to the keyboard. Will update the title to better reflect the larger picture :-)
If sales grew year over year (I'm betting marginally) it's because of the release of Windows Phone 8 plus a larger selection of devices. It's not a result of good marketing by the manufacturers, MS or the carriers.
I think what people are saying is that % of market share fell slightly (0.1%) but because the overall market size grew, and the percentage loss is tiny, it may actually represent a growth in the raw NUMBER of users, but not the % market share. It's still not good, but it may not be incorrect to say that WP grew either.
For Android, the fall was bigger and can't be countered by the growth in the number of users in the market so that is a loss no matter what.
I'm more curious to see what the share numbers really are for countries outside the US where there is a perception that growth is more significant.
A steady growth in what? Negative market share? if you have marketshare - and you have 3.2 in oct and 3.1 in jan. than it is no growth - well . at least not in market share .. because its less :)
but you might be able to say that WP gained momentum in numbers of sells.. but well .. but still - the others sold more .. but at least wp would not lose on that statistics :)
If I sold 4million more phones than I sold last year that is growth (total number of winphone owners). Even if that growth is not keeping up with the overall growth of the market (total number of smartphone owners). That is why the article is not pitching it as doom and gloom.
This is installed user base. How do you think Symbian has hung on to 0.5% of the US market?
@ ammarmalik2011

That you are not a math expert is pretty obvious. If you subtract 0.2% from 0.3%. you do not get 1%.
it was a typo, jeez
Wow. That's some nice spin, to portray loss as growth!
It's possible old Windows Mobile devices may somehow still be included.
This question is for wpcentral or anyone who can answer it: This chart measures "smartphone subscribers". What exactly is a subscriber? Is it a customer with a wireless contract?
One with active SIM card.
They should really categorize blackberry and RIM separately.
Or Microsoft with WM WP7 and WP8 .. right?
WM and WP yes, two totally different platforms just like RIM and BB. WP7 & 8 are the same platform and eco system.
Why Lol ??? No bb10 in the US yet... So why would you split the numbers ??
Seriously Rich, are you under the impression we dont know how to read?
If I was under the impresson that "readers" don't know how to read, then wouldn't I have resorted to drawing a big picture?
LOOOOL
Do I smell an update to article? Lol
I honestly can't believe people still buy iPhones or Androids. iPhones are extremely dated and boring, Androids continue to push the limits of hardware but still run slowly. Baffles me.
People want what they want. Plain and simple.
I honestly cannot believe people think high end Androids runs slowly. Baffles me.
Some Androids do after a while, for WP..the other storage increases -_-
Apple had amazing lock in power, and users are not unhappy so don't look at alternatives. The fact their phones are now dated in some ways doesn't matter to them. That is why enthusiastic demos of features like low light cameras wake people up to the fact that better options exist.
They have better apps, better storage management, better adoption and support in the corporate market, better specs such as true HD screens, much wider accessory support like airplay enabled devices and ieverything docks, more options such as large screens, better sync tools (look at the windows phone app for w8, terrible) more features and better carrier support. Are you really baffled?
WP8 has some advantages, a smoother OS and really nice handsets from nokia and HTC, but to suggest you can't believe people prefer iphone or android is willfully ignorant.
Has MS had any gain on this comScore chart ever? I mean, since I bought my first WP device on Nov'10, every month I see these comScore and MS is losing marketshare, I don't remember to see any gain, only -0.1 here and -0.3 there...
This proves that more early adopters are leaving windows phone for other OS than new customers from other OS joining WP. At least in America. The consequence of taking customer loyalty for granted. MS fooling WP7 customers and early adopters shunning WP. This will also impact their surface sale, and the windows OS devices, albeit marginally. Sent from iPhone by a disgruntled customer.
No, this proves that Windows Phone is being slowly adopted. I really wish people would stop jumping on the "they didn't give us a free update" bandwagon to justify moving to a different platform. If you went to iPhone fine but stop coming back to the platform you claimed to dump and whining about it. No one gets free updates to the next OS anymore except Apple because they were first and got a foothold.
I don't think this proves anything close to that....it could mean that there are just a larger number of smartphones to dilute the pie, and WP's share of the pie shrunk a little. WP could have sold better than ever, but if Apple and/or Google captured more new smartphone owners, then WP's share still would have dipped because the number of users in the market would have increased.
As I said above lets put this in easy understandable terms and just take I month, lets say Jan 2013, activated phones were windows phone 360,000, android phones 400,000 in the US, As you can see the month on month gap between these 2 OS's is closing pretty fast, I would expect when the latest nokia devices arrive in the USA and Verizon gets onboard soon that this gap will be a non issue and wp will probably overtake android in actual activations month on month, This translates into a very small slow and steady marketshare increase for WP year on year.
Seeing just percentages can only give you an idea of market share, it doesn't give you any actual quantitative value. This is a bit of a spin in some way but while market share overall may have dropped according to this report, the number of WP users could be growing. Without seeing actual numbers let's assume there were 1,000,000 subscribers. 3.2% of that is 32,000. Again for argument sake, let's assume at the end of the period there's now 1,500,000 subscribers. 3.1% of that would be 46,500 users. So while there is a .1% drop in market share, the user base is still growing. It could mean some people are migrating to other platforms, but could also mean that competition is growing at a faster rate and MS isn't capturing new customers as much as other platforms.
At least someone gets it....I was typing out almost this exact comment, but you said it better so I'm glad I never submitted it. :-)
What these guys just said... its % market share. we dont have any numbers, well none in this article anyway. if you didn't know that the mass population are still buying iphones and androids your blind. doesnt bother me cause when i pull out my different shiney lumia 920 i'm more than happy to not be surrounded by other sheep with the same phone. its nice to have a better phone than everyone else. the day wp's are every where may be the day i jump ship.
No disrespect. I just don't understand this logic
Not sure cheerleading like this helps anyone. I get what the author was trying to say, but there are better ways to go about it. For example, you could simply have said something like "Windows Phone experienced a worrying drop in marketshare. One way to look at the numbers of course is to assume that Windows Phone grew, but grew less than the expansion of the market" At least that way it doesn't look like spin and we don't look like deluded fanboys.
It wasn't meant to come across as cheerleading, but I do understand that I did indeed select the wrong words. I could excuse myself with a brain fart, but this would have to be one huge exhale of gas in my mind to run with the mistake made.
Windows phone is the best I have used, only problem is they are leading from behind...for example Samsung is s4 is coming march 14, 5s is coming in Aug but already talking about it.....where is HTC and Nokia????......this is a fast game
Microsoft needs there own phone high-end with all the bells and whistles........do more integration deals with cars and xbox
Really would like to know if comscore includes WM in the same category as WP. That could completely change the meaning of these numbers. Rich?
Android with -1.3%, thats not too bad considering they sold more than any other, that just means some people are choosing other than android compared to the previous period, the pool is growing so Windows Phone is growing even if looks static at -0.1%
but some people from Android and BB are moving to Apple
At the end of the day, fanboys are fanboys. When the marketshare of paltry 3% for a significantly settled product like windows phone remains stagnant or falls, it means that the product mix is not showing good signs. Marketshare, irrespective of volume, reflects competition. When a product with very low marketshare can't make a steady growth and falls instead, it proves it is losing its ground and the likelyhood of it catching up with competition is diminishing. MS/Nokia should realize that their strategy is not working and should experiment with new tricks and tweaks. Fanboys need to change their attitude too ;)
It's only in U.S u hear discriminitation of any mobile platform other than Android or iOS. Their judgement cannot determine the success of any platform. People are wiser now cos they don't follow sponsored articles or stories by these tech writers, rather they just buy what suits their lifestyles and pockets.
MS and NOKIA know that it won't be easy to take market share in USA from androi and IOS. They have to keep pushing hard and try to conquer other contries like they're doing.
"Lumia 720 and Lumia 520 Windows Phones that were both announced at Mobile World Congress, have yet to launch in the states" They have yet to launch ANYWHERE ;)
_______________________________________
Anyway, I don't see how this can be good. Microsoft had the chance to capitalize with the downfall of Blackberry. But that's NOT happening. By those numbers it's clear it's Apple who's profiting from BB's demise, not Microsoft.
That should send a clear message to Redmond regarding the need to work faster and better to put WP up to the OS levels of Android and iOS.
Paul Thurrott talked about 700 000 handsets, most of em Nokia the quarter before this...in TOTAL of U.S since Nokia enterd the U.S. Clearly WP and Nokia is not loved over there.
This isn't good, for this reason. Suppose the drop in share is largely from Windows Mobile users upgrading.
Where are they going? If they went straight to WP8, the overall market share wouldn't have declined. It has. Further, Apple is clearly winning in the battle for the "feature phone" upgraders, seeing as everybody else lost market share over the last quarter. WP lost less than Android and Blackberry, but that's still little more than being crowned "tallest midget". If WP is going to be a viable alternative, it had to strike this last quarter - when WP8 was fresh, Blackberry was still in disarray, and Android was in neutral.
Android is about to release two mega phones and Key Lime Pie, and Blackberry is going to make whatever effort it's going to make. The road just got a lot choppier. The best hope now is Blackberry falls flat on its face, the platform collapses, and consumers get Android/Apple fatigue.
WP needed a snowball effect to become that third alternative, and I don't think these numbers got it rolling. Had there been a jump to 5%, then 7% market share, buzz would start surrounding the platform, which would bring in more developers, which would bring in more users, which would bring even more buzz and publicity, and the snowball would be on its way downhill. 3.2 to 3.1%, however, won't start anything.
Finally a sensible person :) this was a well though out comment and I applaud you for it.
What can I say... People are buying iOS because of the apps and Android because of the apps and the great selection of hardware. The Lumia 920... yes nice... when they work... I think Nokia can blame itself for the subpar QC they have "Made in China in a new factory.". Also I doubt that it was a good idea to go with the Qualcomm S4... that is another quality problem, if not the largest one! Either Microsoft gets creative and makes sure that WP8 will work on Intel and Nvidia SOC solutions or they will just have to feel the pain of the "variable" Qualcomm SOCs. Not to mention that we need a notification center, a smarter way to manage connectivity (like location based), Full HD and devices with more than 32Gb of memory with a decent battery life. I think the whole mistake is the strategy, sure we need low cost phones, but if you get a subsidized phone from a carrier, people will just get the best they can get for their monthly plan and WP8 devices are not that in the consumers eyes. Not to mention that we have no real file system for our files... We can't even download a .zip, .pdf or whatever file to resend it via email... "ALL CLOUD BASED".... Yeah... "Clown based nonsense... I say!" Nokia will soon come out with Android devices if MS does not improve WP8 to something the consumers want. I fact, a Nvidia Tegra3 based Lumia 920 with Android would probably sell 20 times better! The whole WP8 effort has been as much of a Flop as the German Kursk offensive, the 920 as unreliable as the Panther D Tank and the whole operation as much hampered by delays as the Kursk offensive... In my opinion, if no radical change comes from MS, like after Kursk... this was it, the rest will be a quick collapse of WP.
The best phone was barely available to purchase for months, the devices were all teased in a big variety of colors that weren't even available, the platform is comprised mostly of exclusive devices that aren't available carrier to carrier so there is no consistency. MS's brands don't support their own hardware, rolling out apps for iphone and android with first priority.

The roll out has been a disaster and now the specs aren't high-end and the OS doesn't yet support state of the art technology. Frustrating to watch, although less frustrating than not being able to use my 8X to do things because it is entirely filled with 8GB of OTHER that I can't get rid of without purging all of my apps and data.
I Think its interesting people continue to think hardware is the key to growth. It isn't. Android has some of the worst hardware in the world and it grows. Apple has some of the best hardware and it isn't really displacing Android. Nokia has done its part hardware wise. Next its all about cool. Until its cool to use a windows phone no hardware is gonna sway the youngsters. If Microsoft wants to grow, they have to swallow their pride and let people forget to a large degree they're involved. Nokia and the manufactures have to be the face of windows phone. Stop calling it windows phone. Call it surface. Call it anything that removes the word windows. People have voted with their pockets that they aren't supporting anything in the mobile space with the words Microsoft or Windows. Yes this hurts and no Microsoft is not happy that Lumia is considered good while windows phone is considered bad, but you can't fight the tide. Ride it out, the end result is the same, market share.
There is one major reason for this. Why Windows Phone sill avoids the CDMA heavy prepaid market, as well as where is the promised fixed CDMA coding by Microsoft? Samsung, HTC (Nokia and Huawei as well), Sprint (along virtually every CDMA carrier in the US), and the FCC are waiting for it, and they have a bit more than three months to make it happen.
That has to be addressed in order for Windows Phone can reach a 10% share in the US smartphone market, and then you'll start seeing the major apps coming.
I love the fact that I have a WINDOWSPHONE.. Everybody that sees me always wonder what is that yellow thang... Yup I don't care what stats say that's all News to me
This is BS reporting. How can any editor allow such a blatant lie be used as a headline. The story does not line up. Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 is losing share, period. It is not growing and that is a shame, as it is a damn good platform. But Microsoft always knows how to shoot itself in the foot. The WP8 platform is in dire need of massive updates in core functionality if it really wants to compete with iOS and Android. We can't wait till "Blue" to come by the "holidays" for things like universal search, separate volume controls for phone alerts, ring tones, music, etc., flip to silence, more robust integration of email, calendars and contacts especially with Outlook (really, only letting me have access of two months prior of appointments!), among other missing pieces. Sadly, these people at Microsoft are clueless.
This remains a near useless indicator and anyone who stresses over the viability of a platform because of this garbage should be forced to go back to a feature phone. Every month or quarter you will find that every one of the various pseudo-stat based indicator scores shows different market shares for everyne one in the game. They also occasionally show clearly stupid interpretations such as ndroid marketshare shrinking. The fact is that since companies guard real data on device sales/adoption rates, and do shell game tricks to make numbers look larger on the few occasions they actually mention them, people will contiinue to come up clever sounding but inherently flawed estimates. To say they should be taken with a boulder of salt would be putting it mldly.
we all know the reason here. can't get more marketshare without better/more apps. can't get devs to make better/more apps since there already isn't more marketshare...can't sue your way into more marketshare and claim monopoly since there are multiple competitors. it's a big shit sandwich. it's going to be a slow, steady expensive upward climb (or death).
The Lifehacker site has a poll on which smartphone you use. WP is third at 12.6%. lifehacker.com/5988655/what-smartphone-os-do-you-use
The biggest problem I have with ComScore data is that it assumes that the US is the centre of the universe. There are plenty of countries where WP is starting to see respectable share. These numbers are meaningless anywhere but the most self-obcessed nation on earth.

US consumers are so fickle that it might only take one small change from Apple or Google or Microsoft and then bang any of their respective products is top of the charts and sold out. The only trick to success in the US is being in the game long enough for your competitors to fuck up; or just have whatever celebrity is currently having their 15 minutes be seen using it.
This data is for US which has always been a sore point for Nokia. I am seeing a lot of windows phone uptick here in India. Asia and Europe might save windows phone yet :)
Of course its a slow adoption not available, missing color selections, shots itself in the foot by announcing arrival of WP8 so soon, apps & still missing specialty apps, always changing names, exclusivity, etc., etc., etc.,

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