IDC: Windows Phone is the second most popular mobile platform in Latin America

Depending on who you ask, Windows Phone claims anywhere from 3 to 6% of the global smartphone market. Of course it can vary from region to region. We also know that devices like the Nokia Lumia 520 are helping fuel growth in emerging markets. Which is why it’s not too surprising to find out that Windows Phone is now the number two most popular operating system in Latin America.

In the Q2 2012 Windows Phone was the fourth most used OS in Latin America. Fast forward one year and it’s climbed to the number two position, with strong performance in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. In Colombia it holds a 25.6% share of the market. This data comes from the Mobile Phone Tracker report from the IDC for the second quarter of 2013.

Here’s what Liliana González, director of the Windows Phone Division for Latin America had to say about the IDC findings:

“During this year’s Mobile World Congress, we set ourselves the goal of being the second most widely used mobile platform in Latin America by the end of 2013, and we are overjoyed to be able to announce that these reports show that we have achieved this five months before the end of the year. We will continue working alongside Nokia to offer more and more people in Latin America the holistic experience which Windows Phone has for them, in order to offer a more personalized smartphone which is the best for the Windows environment and the best hardware for people and companies.”

This is all very welcomed news for anybody in the Windows Phone community. We recently learned that shipments of the OS were up 77% for the year, which helped to solidify our rank of third place.

Source: Microsoft (opens in new tab)

Thanks for the tip everyone! 

Sam Sabri
114 Comments
  • Happy Hump day!!
    Nice to see MSFT and Nokia's vision materializing.
     
    Edit: The article is somewhat confusing. Just beneath the headline it states: "In one year, the operating system went from fourth to second place with good growth figures,..."
     
    And later goes on to state: "There was 12 percent growth compared to the previous quarter, during which the platform was ranked fourth on the Latin American market."
     
    So did WP go from #4 to #2 in one whole year or just one quarter?
  • The only hump we celebrate around here is on the back of a 1020.  Edit for your edit: You're talking about the Microsoft article right? So they kinda muddled it up. But the IDC report was for the second quarter of 2013. But you're right, it says two things. We'll reach out and clarify with them. 
  • LOLz. :D
  • Envy that, Sam! :-)
  • Camels use the 1020. They go crazy for hump phone on hump day!
  • Don't forget about the 925!!!! :)
  • The 925 is often forgotten, because it's More Than Your Eyes Can See. Out of sight, out of mind.
  • Vamono coñaso wp es lo mejor de lo mejor lol
  • I'm helping this statistics, switched from bb to wp8, couldn't be happier =)
  • It's already Thursday for me :P
  • WE DID IT!!!!.......except for rodneyej. Slacker.
  • Lol
  • Totally slacking...
  • NIST!!!!!
  • So who is #1, #3?
    Wish we had the full list.
  • I'm sure it's #1 Android, #2 WP, #3 iPhone. What else could it be?
  • I'll be surprised if BB will be 3rd. Will never happen obviously :)
  • And Latin America is all on Sprint!
  • BB is supposedly still #1 in Venezuela.
    So not so sure.
  • exactly 
    South Americans still use BB due to BBM and because it is still popular over there.
    I would assume BB is #1 in all of SA. 
  • You are correct. I don't know why South America has a love affair with Blackberry, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's number one. SA is brainwashed, I tell ya.
  • We are brainwashed, really? What about the Samsung and Apple fanboys in U.S.? The Haters of Windows Phone in North America? Please, if any popular artist say that WP is cool, everybody switch to WP only for fashion, and you tell us brainwashed? I don't think so, we just don't buy a phone every 6 months because of the trend, of because is fresh or is the "Next Big Thing", we buy because of reliability and because we will stick with this phone for more than a year because nothing here is so cheap as the phones that you buy in U.S. try to buy a unlocked iPhone, Galaxy S4 or High end Lumia in SA for less than $800. And now WE are brainwashed, I thinnk you don't know what you're talking about.
  • I think you took that way too seriously.
  • I do know what I am talking about. I have lived in South America my entire life.  
    In Colombia, for instance, I've seen so many people walk into stores saying they want to buy a "Blackberry." When the store representative asks what model BB, the customer has no idea how to respond. All they want is the status symbol. They have no idea what they actually want in a phone. They think BB is hot shit when it is so far behind every other smartphone company. It's the status that has them brainwashed.
    I've had friends with stars in their eyes about their new Blackberry ask to play with my cell phones because they couldn't play all the new games or even access YouTube easily on their Blackberry. I haven't checked myself, but I hear the new Blackberry OS is finally on par or close to modern smartphone capability. I've had people ask if my Nokia N8 was a Blackberry, even if my Lumia 920 was a Blackberry.
    I was never talking about purchasing trendy phones or making purchases every 6 months. Even so, places like MercadoLibre make those phones more affordable. That issue is non-related and makes your argument very weak. Frankly, you're the one that doesn't know what he is talking about.  
    It's good to hear that people in Brazil know where to find actual smartphones.
  • But men, in Colombia #1 OS is Android, and second is WP because the price of the devices... Here most of the people look for good phones and affordable prices, like Lumia 505, Galaxy Ace, Xperia typo.. That are the kind of devices that people buy.. Apple in SA (At least the Andes Zone) ... Nehh Just for the guys with a lot of money...
  • Not the whole SA, at least in Brazil Android is the most popular.
  • In Argentina iPhones are not sold because apple doesn't want to follow the regulation so it's 1 Android 2 WP and 3 BB
  • Nice. I wonder if it will ever happen here. If so, How long might it take? 
  • Give it another year.
  • Or 2 or 3.
  • or 4, who knows?
  • I think its in the 5 year plan
  • I'm a bit pessimistic about the US market because everyone here is sucked into 2 year contracts.  It makes it hard for Nokia to make much of a dent with their lower/mid range offerings, which is where they are kicking ass right now.
  • I was wondering about this today. Two years of contract seems too long for me. Here in Brazil you won't go past a year in every carrier you find
  • Ny faith has been increasing due to the apparent popularity of the 520 and 521 in the USA. So Nokia is being smart.
  • Thumbs up!
  • Good to hear ..i recently saw a 920 & 520 in Honduras ..very popular over there
  • I'm really happy to be part of this!!! Go Windows Phone!!! Windows Phone para el primer lugar pronto!
  • Columbia===???? If you are taking about the country, that should be Colombia.. with an O. not a U
  • Whoops. Had it correct in one part and not the other. Thanks. 
  • I think that is english ...
  • No, Colombia is the name, in Spanish and English, Just like Costa Rica... Brazil, for instance, does change (is Brasil in spanish)
  • He might have meant English as in the English settlement of British Columbia... Not sure.
  • It's "Brasil" in Portuguese too! :P
  • Brazil speaks portuguese. Is Brasil spanish or Portuguese or Both?
  • The official language of Brazil is Portuguese, it's very similar to Spanish because of both sharing their origin.
  • There are 2 versions of Portuguese. The European and the american. And Portuguese is totally different from Spanish.
  • Yeah, good news. I hope some retarded european countries - like my germany - will learn from our latin american friends ;-)
  • +1 for Italy too...We were the world n.1 as wp7 market share, we have to do better now :)
  • The Germans seem far too paranoid about Microsoft to ever embrace WP. Plus they also seem to never drop their grudge against Nokia for closing the Bochum (Germany) factory...
  • I guess you're right with both points, still I see more and more Lumias every day.
  • I guess the Bochum point is kinda valid. But when it comes to the MS paranoid factor then what about Google? Seriously, no other company depends more on mining user data for their income than Google. In any case, as far as "surveillance" concern I guess al the US based companies are more or less in the same ground.
  • I would call it concerned not paranoid, lol. It's up to the american lawmaker to care about digital privacy. Until that happens I just don't use american services for very private stuff. For the rest Microsoft is ok for me.
  • Its not up to the American lawmakers. It's up to the American citizens to make change. But since 9/11, they've made the same decisions over and over again.
  • Here's hoping that in that retarded southern neighbour of Germany (Switherland, in case there was any doubt) will learn from our latin american friends as well ;-) Bochum has no impact here (Who cares, Germany is a foreign country to us), but we're even more paranoid than the Germans -hey, we won't even join the EU.But maybe thta's all an excuse for the real reason why WP (or BB or Android or every non-Fruit-OS) won't spread here: The Swiss suffer from a very unhealthy Apple addiction.
  • Awesome, awesome news!
  • Sweet I'm going to use this as leverage. I have a client that does alot in Latin America and the places they do business with don't have apps for WP. Maybe I can talk then into WP apps to keep my client happy.
  • This makes sense. Just got back from Mexico and I showed my family my 810. They were so hyped to see it and knew quite a bit about it. My cousin nearly bought it off me.
  • It's good to see Windows Phone grow. I'm starting to see some 520's and 620's in my school. And there are a bunch of people that want to buy a lumia after seeing my 920. -South Africa
  • Great news alright!! I've only ever had one non Nokia phone back in the boom years, 06 I think , a Samsung sg something, probably ran Symbian anyway lol
  • As a Brazilian I have to say that it is true. Nokia's ad started on the most expensive hour time. Artists started to show with Lumias (specially the yellow L920). Even my little sister, switch from Iphone 5 to a L920, when she went to US.  Even though the smartphone is the most expensive in the World. For example, a L920 costs here $1000USD on Nokia Store. A Lumia 520 at about 250 USD$ . Really expensive. But people choose Nokia over the other OEM because in Brazil is well recognized as the best phones, more than even Iphone (although Iphone has its charm). So the way I see that Nokia 520 will grow even more.
  • I can see it on the streets here in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Nokia is selling tons of 520 and even the good old 800 is still selling very well.
    The unlocked Lumia 520 costs around USD 220. You can't buy any phone as good as the Lumia for this money here...
  • And still, when you go to a store to buy one, the seller doesn't know shit about the phone or the plataform.
  • Nokia Lumia 822 (GRD2) - Panamá - Central America.
  • Great news! It will slowly catch on up north too.
  • Release the PHABLET!!!
  • It's funny, a few times over the past two years I saw laughable (at the time) articles from various analyst groups-- Gartner and IDC and the like-- suggest that Microsoft would be a clear #2 in smartphones by the end of 2015 (possibly sooner), and that they would beat out Apple.
     
    And the reason it's funny, to me at least, is that when Steve Jobs died, I began telling coworkers that Apple would never be able to maintain the growth that they've had the past 10 years. Why? Because it's their history... they have NEVER dominated without Steve, and that's why they brought him back in the late 90s.
     
    So of course, I've been echoing thost analyst reports saying the same thing... by the end of 2015, I fully expect Apple to be back to a state of irrelevance. Not gone, and I don't think they'll ever be gone the way Palm is or RIM will be, but essentially irrelevant to the big picture of computing.
     
    Seeing news like this certainly helps solidify that opinion, in my book at least, and I'm excited to see that once again Microsoft is moving in the right direction. I would love them to move faster, but every day I see that they have the right long-term strategy and the resources to persevere.
     
    GO MICROSOFT!
  • +928
  • Apple never dominated the market, and they don't have to. They only held a large market share because they had the first move advantge in the PC, phone, and tablet industries.
    Apple runs on high profit margins instead of volume, this is why apple has had a stable 5% marketshare on world wide computer shipments, and yet it holds about 45% of the industry's profit (stupid spam filter deleting my like to the source).
    The same will probably happen to the tablet and the phone markets.  I can see the iPhone stabalizing at 10%, but I wouldn't be surprised if it still captured over 50% of the industry profit.
    Nokia is the complete opposite, they have always relied on quality inexpencive devices to turn a profit.  Sure they had their high-end line with the N8 and the likes, but these phones were never their cash cow.
    Ultimately I hope that Apple sticks around because they put a lot of pressure in the market, even when they don't innovate themselves.  There is plenty of room for three competitors.
  • I hope Apple stays relevant for many years to come. The truth is that the markets needs more than one giant tech company to hold the dice. Competition benefits every player in the market. I like Microsoft and love my Nokia 521 but MS is not exactly the most innovative company in the world. They never been innovative and probably never will, and thats not necessarely a bad thing. What MS does best is to take new/current ideas and make them better. They did that with their OS, office software, and browsers (netscape/explorer war). MS is a reactionary company.
    I hope both MS and Apple keep challenging each other for many years to come. I also hope they keep high quality standards all accross their product lines at all price points. There is no excuse for selling a cheap underperforming Android device that will never get any updates. If MS/Nokia can sell a wonderful affordable device like 520/521, what stops Android oem's from doing the same? For that matter why should I spend $300+ on a device that wont get more than one update if any (I'm looking at you Samsung)?  For those reasons, I rather go with MS or Apple.
  • Hmm.. Nokia went to second here in India overtaken by Samsung.. :-/
  • Truth to be told, MS and Nokia should pay some money Instance and 6sec devs for this. A few weeks ago I talked to a sales rep of a big electronic store chain, and he told me after these two apps, he saw a substantially increase in Lumia sales among kids and teens who opted for the 520 instead of the more expensives iPod touch and the crappy Galaxy Y phones.
  • MS should hire Rudy and Daniel to build apps for Windows Phone. These two people will bring a lot of new Windows phone users.
  • Since everyone is talking about Windows Phone in their own country, I think I'll do the same. Everyone that seems my 920 is impressed with the OS and the design. They especially love the OIS! I got my cousin to buy a Lumia, and he's been doing some convincing of his own! Off to a slow start here, but I can definitely see it picking up!
    -Cayman Islands
  • I love the image...one of these phones is not like the others, one of these phones does not belong lol
  • Hey, the 8X is a great Windows Phone!
    That being said, I sold mine for my 928. Ha
  • The market share can drop almost instantly in a year's time so I wouldn't be too happy unless Windows gets to 9% globaly. There's one thing that can always be done - lower the prices (and if that doesn't work you're screwed). I'm very interested to see Nokia's next move, Lumia 525/725 could really get this show on the road and push WP forward.
    It's starting to look bleak after all this time, sadly I think that Microsoft will sacrifice (squander ?) Nokia to prepare the ground and in 2016 they'll 'restart' RIM (or some other company) as a Windows manufacturer (akin to their Xbox & Xbox 360 strategy). Nokia is the pioneer and will get the arrow if Microsoft doesn't get to work, if anyone told me in 2011/2012 that Windows won't solidify it's hold by now I wouldn't believe it but they're barely holding any meaningful influence and past  popularity.
  • You are talking of market share while the IDC report is talking of "second most widely USED" (emphasis mine) which means the report is talking of user base. That figure could only have resulted from several quarters of good WP sales. That user base probably includes a lot of WP7 devices.
    What is interesting and exciting to me about the report is that obviously people are not only buying WP devices but that they are actually staying in the platform and using it.
  • The second in Latin America!!!!!....and Latin America is the last in receive updates!!..LOL
  • not really... i actually receive them pretty fast :D
  • Yeah congrats to Nokia and ms and south America! :)
  • "We will continue working alongside Nokia to offer more and more people in Latin America" should sell the other collor options of Lumia devices, not just black and white. (Brazil)
  • I can see more Lumia phones here in Hong Kong after using my Lumia 920 for 8 months
  • Funny, here in my city, northern Mexico, my friends make fun of me for using WP, all of them use android, iphone or even bb, guess im in the wrong neighborhood lol, dont even care its pointless to argue with people that cares more about apps and being fancy
  • Weird, I can definitely say that I see a LOT of WP devices here (in Guadalajara). The entry level devices like 505/520/620 are omnipresent but I have also spotted a few high devices.
  • He visto muy pocos aqui en Hermosillo, pero ya sabes, Telcel eleva mucho los precios, entonces es mas dificil conseguir telefonos como el 920 a buen precio, y sobre todo, los que estan para ayudar promocionan primero los android
  • And with this numbers, where are the multilanguage support (I mean spanish) for a lot of great apps such as Fresh Paint, Locksider+, Picture Lab, Weather Live and my favorite one WPCentral!!
  • WPCentral is a English dominated site, so I think it's normal not to deliever the WPC app in Spanish. I mean, if you don't know English, you don't come to WPC. If you come to WPC, then you English of usable level, then it is non-sense to ask for a Spanish version of WPC app
  • Or WPC could get Spanish editors for their Spanish website, therefore increasing website awareness and have their store sales increase dramatically. Imagine if MS and Google didn't provide support for other languages. I very much doubt they'd be the power tech giants they're now.
  • +kudos
  • Yesssss.
    México.
  • And even so... Nokia Brasil don't give attention to brazilian users...
    Iemen people got GDR2... South Africa too... Oman too... Bahrein... OMG...
    Brazil is a big and popular country for god sake!!!
     
    Always we are the last ones to get the updates!
    Sadly...
  • Same here in Finland and Nokia is from here. No GDR2 yet.
  • I'm from Brazil and I can say the Nokia phone prices is good, compared to Android phones. Here, the bigger market in South America, Apple products are VERY expensive. Brazil is naturally a expensive country with ridiculous taxes, but Apple Brazil is more greedy here. Buy a iPhone on USA is 4 times cheap than Brazil. This contributes to the second place from Lumia
    Still, congratz to Microsoft and Nokia.
  • Somebody's favorite color is yellow
  • i have just dumped my white iPhone 5 for a White Lumia 920.
    Love From México !
  • Great! How do you like your Nokia 920?
  • I love my phone is different from the androids they all look alike and love the camera, the colors people hub it's amazing. the only thing i do not like is the overheating sometimes i cannot make a phone call, the batterylife and the lack of social apps, i am very very active socially so i need a good facebook one and twitter. i am using the twitter official app for the notifications and rowi lite for chicking when in WiFi. i need 6tag ASAP and support for american express credit card  i have no other credit card the weird thing is i could use it when i had my E7-00 on my nokia account.
    i've installed here maps, navigation , transport etc. Oggl ,instance 6sec all nokia photo app, cinepolis app, line vimeo youtube (altough is not working), shazam, sound hound facebook beta, the weather channel, fotor, battery pro+ , evernote, kik ,line, netflix, ocell, skype tumblr, vogue app, zara app and whatsapp but somehow i cannot save videos that are sent to me, actually i cannnot find them they are not in saved images nor in videos.
  • Wow your phone is pack of goodies :-) Maybe when you get GDR2 and the Amber update from Nokia will give you a better battery life. I never met a person that socially connected as you. My guess is you're one of the many that's waiting also for "6tag". LOL! I have the 925 and I love my phone. I came from crappy android that made my life difficult, useless phone I tell you.
  • Viva La Windows!
  • Nokia must care with love this statistics.
    I'm from Sao Paulo, Brazil, a happy Nokia Lumia 820 owner.
    Great times are coming.
    And one more thing.
    But, but windows phone doesn't have apps.
  • Just last weekend my cousin who lives in Lima, Peru posted some pictures from a concert he attended. His signature says "sent from windows phone".
  • Hope this kind of growth will happen here in the Philippines too. Not so many Lumia's here. Some people even thought Nokia is dead already. L720 here.
  • Yeah. I hope so. L800 here for more than a year. But we have not seen a single Lumia commercial for over a year also. I hope the interest will move up. But it's a good feeling being unique among the sea of androids around us. :)
  • I would love to live in a region where the majority of the population owned a Windows Phone.. Like, go out and see people using their Windows Phones and stuff.. Let's get a world domination plan going..
  • its actually looking to be true! i live in colombia and i have been watching an increase in windows phone specially the 520! thats why we have the 25% of the marketshare and i wish that Nokia and microsoft notice this and send the hardware  quickly because they suck in that :/ just to say that the 900 came over here in august 2012 a month before nokia announced the 920. and the 920 and the 820 came over here in april almost six months after its release. thats the only thing i want them to get better with :D
  • What's awesome is that my Lumia 928 attracts tons of attention everywhere I go. What's even better is that about half of my friends all have decided that their next phone will indeed be a Windows Phone.
  • Sweet news. However we still are the most forgotten part of the world in relation to market. I mean, only Mexico has the Xbox music service, I believe no country has Nokia Music, Amber update will be delayed until September, I'm sure, poor personal service... 
    I think this is the time to put Latin America into the same level as Europe, Asia or North America. That'd make the difference.
  • Yeah! Like, we're selling more than the some countries in Europe down here! About time to give us some credit...
  • Good news for the Windows Phone platform. Here in Colombia the Lumia family is very popular.
  • Yaaay! I'm Brazilian and proud of being the owner of a gorgeous Lumia 925. Wouldn't change it for anything (only for the 32GB version)
  • Windows Phone has more than 20% marketshare in Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam
     
    "Nokia has seen growth worldwide including in Western Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, and has crested 20% market share in some countries. “In Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, we recently broke through 20 percent market share with Lumia, so obviously the Windows Phone platform is becoming really significant,” she said."
     
    http://wmpoweruser.com/windows-phone-has-more-than-20-market-share-in-thailand-indonesia-and-vietnam/
  • Wow, this is really good news. Not the biggest market, but still a sign of things to come. Going from 4th to 2nd in a year points to good reception of the new Lumia line. Looks like Nokia's strategy of attacking several pricepoints is working. Slow and steady will win it.
  • Here in Argentina, you can only buy 710, 900, 620 or 920 and nobody sells any accesories.
     
    I have made a game and the countries with more downloads are....
      Brazil China Russia Argentina United States Check the free version here  http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=2af5e506-749d-42f2-b236-3cc3e0df6b2c