Android obliterates competition in Europe, but the battle for second place gets more interesting

The latest numbers have just come out for the smartphone sales and they show some pretty interesting things that I didn't expect especially in Europe. While the new iPhone release went over huge in United States and Japan in Europe it sold enough however it didn't stop iOS's over all slide.  iOS is five percent down over the same time last year and is now sitting at 15.8%

Android continues to dominate all other operating systems at almost a full 71 percent! This is up over 6 percent from last year at this time and doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Where the real shocker is for the Windows Phone OS in the past year; it more than doubled its share going from 4.8 percent to a 10.2 percent! This puts it only 5.6 percent behind iOS for second largest OS in Europe.

According to the numbers, this was done based mainly on the back the low end Nokia Lumia 520 and Nokia Lumia 620.  While Nokia/Microsoft is making almost no money on these devices they are accomplishing what they were set out to do, grow the Windows Phone user base. One would only assume that Microsoft is paying attention and when they take over Nokia next year they will continue to make budget friendly devices.

Apple is actually losing some market share in the US and Europe, but Android is the real threat to Apple's sales. Apple is still selling millions of phones every few months, but it's not doing it on the same level as the competition. The company saw big gains in Japan, capturing 61 percent of the market in the past three months.

I will continue to watch Europe's numbers closely. It could be the first market "that counts" in where Windows Phone takes the second place trophy from iOS. I don't see Apple making the low end type of devices that is driving Windows Phone growth in Europe anytime soon. If the same trend that happened this year in Europe even does half of it did last year and Windows Phone gains/iOS loses 2.8 percent Windows Phone will be the second largest OS in Europe and that's when the smartphone race gets interesting.

VIA