Microsoft has a long way to go before it will catch up to the rest of the wireless phone industry in terms of sales of its Windows Phone 7 devices. According to a new report from Gartner, only 1.6 million wireless phones with the Windows Phone 7 devices were sold in the first quarter of 2011. Gartner says that WP7 "devices launched at the end of 2010 failed to grow in consumer preference and CSPs continued to focus on Android." Overall 3.6 million phones sold during the first quarter used some kind of Windows mobile OS. Even though Microsoft is well behind, Gartner still believes that the deal with Nokia to provide WP7 for future Nokia phones will help, saying, "In the long term, Nokia"s support will accelerate Windows Phone"s momentum."
Google"s Android OS continues to dominate the phone market, according to Gartner"s study. 36.3 million phones with that operating system were sold worldwide during the first quarter of this year. Nokia"s Symbian OS is still second with 27.6 million phones sold with that operating system. In third place is Apple"s iOS which sold 16.9 million phones in the first quarter. Finally RIM is in a solid fourth place with 13 million phones sold in the first quarter.
Overall, 428 million mobile phones were sold worldwide in the first quarter of 2011, which Gartner says is a 19 percent increase from the same period a year ago. Nokia remains the number one seller of mobile phones with over 107 million phones sold worldwide. Samsung comes in at number two with over 68 million phones followed by LG with nearly 24 million phones, Apple with over 16.8 million phones sold and RIM with 13 million phones.