The latest tracking stats for Windows Phone have been released by advertising network AdDuplex, which monitors usage across its network to create a detailed monthly breakdown of Microsoft's mobile ecosystem. The reports capture a snapshot of worldwide usage across one 24-hour period - in this case, November 23, 2015.
As in both September and October, the latest data show another increase in Windows 10 Mobile usage across Microsoft's mobile ecosystem. This time last month, the new OS was in use on 5.7% of Windows handsets; that has now increased to 7%.
That's quite a sizeable proportion given that the OS is still officially in preview, and hasn't yet begun rolling out to existing devices. At the time that these data were compiled, only one handset - Microsoft's new Lumia 950 - was on sale with Windows 10 Mobile pre-installed, and it had only been available for three days at that point, and only in the United States. It seems unlikely, then, that this will have contributed significantly to the rise in usage of that OS version.
There's been almost no change in the breakdown of Windows handset manufacturers; Microsoft/Nokia continues to dominate the Windows Phone 8.x platform with over 97% of devices in use.
Globally, the ageing Nokia Lumia 520 remains the most popular Windows Phone, despite a decline of 0.7% from last month. However, Microsoft's Lumia 535 is slowly gaining worldwide in second place, with a month-on-month increase of 0.5% - the same worldwide increase seen on the much newer Lumia 640.
The Lumia 640 appears to be a strong-seller for Microsoft - and it's doing particularly well in the US, where it's up by 2.2% compared with October. That's not entirely surprising, given the extraordinary freefall in its US pricing - it first went on sale there in May at $129.99 off-contract, before later becoming available on AT&T for just $79. In the weeks leading up to the latest AdDuplex report, it had fallen further to $59.99 (and it's currently on offer for just $29.99).
But despite soaring in popularity since its US launch - 14.5% of US Windows Phones are now Lumia 640s - it continues to lag far behind the older Lumia 635, which is at 32.5%.
The 640 has also been doing very well in Germany, where it gained 2.9% month-on-month, and is now on 9.4%. Having leapfrogged the Lumia 925 and Lumia 535 since October, it's now gaining on the Lumia 930 and Lumia 630 in second- and first-place respectively.
You can check out a deeper overview of this month's AdDuplex report here, including a detailed breakdown of handset usage in Brazil, Italy, Mexico and Turkey. AdDuplex will publish its full monthly report tomorrow on its website.
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