The AdDuplex report for January will get published tomorrow but we got an early look at how the Windows Phone ecosystem has changed since last year.
First up, there’s nothing really surprising going on, and there haven’t been any major changes. That being said, this new report further confirms the trends we saw throughout the whole of 2013.
Last year, the launch of the Lumia 520 made quite a splash and its sales were the driving force behind Windows Phone"s marketshare gains. However, this little handset"s adoption rate seems to have slowed considerably in 2014. In fact, the Lumia 520 only grew by 0.2% when compared to December.
The new rising star seems to be the low-end Lumia 625 that has grown by 0.4% month over month and has started to ship in greater numbers around the world. In the UK, it now owns 6.4% of the market, while in France, that number goes up to 9.5%. Considering that last month this phone barely made it in the charts, this is some remarkable growth for the device.
Interesting to note is that the Lumia 1020 also seems to be doing quite well, reaching the top 10 in a few countries. In Australia, its most successful market, it now accounts for 6.3% of all Windows Phones. It also seems to be doing somewhat well in the UK and Germany with 3% marketshare in each. Of course, these aren’t big numbers but considering its high price tag, limited availability and absence from last month’s charts, this growth bodes well for the Nokia flagship.
In terms of OEMs, the picture is pretty much unchanged. Nokia has gained another 0.2% and now accounts for 92.3% of the Windows Phone ecosystem. Other OEMs like HTC and Samsung have had greatly discounted handsets on sale, accounting for a few spikes in certain markets but overall the picture is clear and Nokia – soon to be Microsoft - owns it.
Another interesting tidbit of info from this report is the distribution of OS versions. While Windows Phone 8 is still eating up the WP7 base, albeit very slowly there"s also some disparity inside Windows Phone 8 itself. Most people are running GDR2/Lumia Amber on their phones, while 18% of users are still stuck at GDR1 which is almost a year old. Only 14.7% percent of users are running the current GDR3/Lumia Black version of Windows Phone.
Finally, the AdDuplex report also mentions some unknown devices. First up is the Samsung SM-W750V, which we’ve seen pop-up before. The phone features a Full HD screen at 1920 x 1080 resolution. While originally the handset was thought to have a 5-inch screen, the version that shows up in the AdDuplex data only points to a 4.3 inches.
Secondly, there’s the mention of a Nokia RM-997 device with a 4-inch screen at 800x480 resolution. This one only shows up in China so judging that bit of information, it’s a low-end device for developing markets.
Both handsets are running Windows Phone 8.0 so there’s no new info on Microsoft next mobile OS version.
Be sure to check out the full report tomorrow at the AdDuplex Blog.