WP7 neck and neck with webOS; more gains on the way?

By Seth Brodeur
last updated

Research group, Chitika, is reporting that Windows Phone 7 has gained enough of the smartphone market to bring it on par with HP's (Palm's) webOS.  Since February, WP7 has risen from 0.44% to 0.5%, putting it in a virtual tie with webOS' estimated 0.53%, down from 0.84% in the same period.  While this may not seem very impressive at first blush, it is significant because newcomer WP7 is now even, and set to overtake, an already established OS.  Windows Phone has been slowly gaining ground since its launch, while webOS has been steadily declining. 

Chitika predicts that WP7 will potentially spike once it makes its way over to Verizon, though its arrival has seen more than its fair share of delays.  Verizon has worked wonders for market leader, Android, as it accounts for more than half of all Android devices out there.  The slow growth of Windows Phone 7 seems to be less about quality, as most devices seem to receive high marks, and more about accessibility.  Once Big Red gets in the game, it could mean some substantial gains for Microsoft.

Source: 1800PocketPC; Via: Chitika

Seth Brodeur
Seth Brodeur
17 Comments
  • Not too sure about this. What make you think it's depending on Verizon. The iPhone was on ONE carrier for years, and it dominated.
  • Too much importance being attached to Verizon, as if 3 other US and multiple international carriers are chopped liver. Werent the CDMA carriers supposed to propel WP7 sales into the stratosphere? Getting it on Verizon wont do squat, same as the effect of having it now available on Sprint.
  • Agreed, Windows Phone's breaking point is NOT Verizon.It's Mango + Nokia hardware. When that combo hits the carriers, especially in the U.S., that will be the Verizon/'Droid tipping point. Till that time, WP7 will continue to grow, modestly, throughout 2011 but nothing major.
  • It's a fair point, but the iPhone had people chomping at the bit before it came out because of the success of the iPod and an already enthusiastic base of fanboys. They could have released it on any carrier. WP7 is a brand new product and people have not had a lot of exposure to it. Think of the many Verizon users browsing in a store for a new phone. I think that is the thought behind a potential spike.Also, I don't think there are any illusions that WP7 will blow up and over take Android, just because Verizon gets is. It's just likely to boost marketshare to some extent.Seth
  • I'd jump on board in a minute if it had a decent relational database application like HanDBase! Until they get some more business apps, both these operating systems are going to be playing catch-up.
  • HP has some nice looking hardware. Maybe if WebOS fails, they can start partnering with Microsoft as they did in the past with Palm.
  • WP7 is killing it! next up Android :)
  • people place importance on verizon because of what it did for the android platform. before verizon released the moto droid, android was barely known in the mainstream consumer space.now look at it, and you know it wasn't because of the nexus line. with verizon lacking an iphone, and the blackberry platform aging rapidly in the new age of touchscreens and good apps, people flocked to android because it offered them functionality with some of the apple fun.the marketplace has changed now though, but i still believe wp7 will get a decent bump when on verizon, though it will be a slower process as they're going to launch with a pretty mediocre phone, but i for one can't wait to dump my verizon iphone for it. However, it will need the marketing push that the droid brand got from verizon, which i'm not sure is going to happen given verizon's lack of enthusiasm for the platform...sigh
  • Good points all around. Verizon needs to promote it.
  • Interesting to me because I carry both a WebOS and WP7 phone (I'm a developer). Guess which one I use the most? Hint: NOT wp7...Even though my wp7 (LQ Quantum on ATT) has much better hardware specs (especially screen size/res) than my Pre Plus on Verizon, the Pre tends to run circles around the LG. How much is due to ATT? Can't say, since Verizon doesn't have any WP7s to compare to, but I mostly use the WP7 on wifi so...I'm hoping Mango will close the gap. I think the biggest problems I see relate to IE (7) vs WebKit. With luck IE 9 will be much better.I definitely hope *both* platforms prosper.As a user I currently prefer WebOS. As a developer I prefer WP7. Note that I mean the development experience (Silverlight/Visual Studio/Expression Studio). So far in terms of *sales* WebOS is literally 10 times better for me. I have more sales on WebOS than free/trial downloads on WP7 for the same app released around the same time. Hopefully marketplace updates will make discoverability better with Mango too. Currently apps tend to get a bump when they release and then fall off the map since it is difficult to go beyond a couple of screenfuls of the top apps. The top apps tend to do well and everyone else falls into a black hole.
  • Parody with webos isnt anything special in this market, though wp7 is on the way up & getting attention, and webos is down. Let me know when wp7 has similar numbers to any other smartphone os.
  • i think you mean parity not parody.every platform has to start somewhere, to be poised to overtake a platform that has been around for a while longer than it, it's still a milestone albeit a small one.if wp7 can keep growing after the new hp/palm devices and webOS 3.0, that will be more interesting.mango seems like it will be a level of update similar to what android 2.0 was for that platform.
  • Yes, parity :) I think wp7 well deff keep growing after webos 3.0.
  • As a current webOS user and soon to be WP7 convert the latter definitely has more momentum. HP has been ridi9culously slow to release hardware. The touchpad and Pre3 are so far behind it's not even funny. I loved my Pre and the software experience but they totally failed to deliver on the promised Flash support and subsequent kicking to the curb of the Pre- users on Sprint. I can't wait until my contract is up and we go from 2 Pre's to 3 WP7 devices. HP's loss is MS's gain. Also, the music experience on the Pre is horrible. Slow performance and a horrible interface compared to Zune on WP7. It was fun while it lasted but it's time to stick a fork in webOS, it's done.
  • Well I, for one, don't have a WP7 device yet because Verizon hasn't release one yet, soooooo ...
  • While I like WebOS (never owned a device), Palm's hardware design is pretty uninspiring. For some smartphone users, "looks and status" means just as much as the OS. While WebOS is pretty neat, its the phones themselves people aren't lining up to get.
  • Despite what coverage maps may suggest, there are a number of areas in the country where there was no AT&T presence (I say was because only last week Alltel officially was assimilated into AT&T in my area. So I could actually get a WP7 or iPhone here now (and guess which one AT&T is advertising). Verizon is king here and even now that people I know are getting ViPhones the predominant choice has been Android. I showed a Costco cellphone rep my WP7 Samsung Focus and he admitted it was easier to use than Android, but then proceeded to tell me how cool the new Android phones are going to be.Microsoft has the best dev tools and from what I've seen of Mango from Mix 11, will have a really compelling environment for both devs and consumers. Apple has a great ecosystem and has rewarded developers $3 billion while Android has only made them $100 million. MS is right to lean towards the Apple model for MarketPlace. I hold out hope that WP7 will eventually come to be like Xbox.