Microsoft has yet to offer any official sales of Windows Phone-based smartphones. As a result, we have to rely on research firms for their stats. For the fourth quarter of the year, some firms claimed that Windows Phone sales increased in the US, while others stated that the market share for Windows Phone actually went down.
This week, Gartner revealed its worldwide smartphone sales numbers for the fourth quarter of 2012 and it was good news for Windows Phone and Microsoft. The firm claims that Windows Phone-based smartphone sales went up to 6.1855 million units for the quarter, which is a 124.6 percent increase compared to the same period a year ago. In the fourth quarter of 2012, when Microsoft launched Windows Phone 7.5, only 2.759 million units were sold.
Microsoft"s overall market share of the smartphone business went up to three percent for the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to just 1.8 percent a year ago. Even though BlackBerry"s share has gone way down in the past year, it still managed to stay ahead of Windows Phone with 3.5 percent of the smartphone market.
Overall, the number of smartphones sold worldwide in 2012 came in at 207.7 million units, up 38.3 percent from 2011. Android-based smartphones had the most market share at 69.7 percent, followed by iOS at 20.9 percent.
Source: Gartner | Image via Gartner