Windows Phone Actually Gaining Market Share In Some Countries 114
Nerval's Lobster writes "Last week, research firm IDC issued a report suggesting that Windows Phone shipments exceeded those of the iPhone in seven countries around the world, including Argentina, India, Poland, and Russia. The data startled some people — Daring Fireball's John Gruber, for example, blogged his skepticism. As the story gained a bit more momentum, The New York Times' Nick Wingfield reached out to IDC analyst Kevin Restivo for a bit more clarification: 'IDC's numbers also reflect only the official number of cellphones imported into the countries,' he wrote. 'Mr. Restivo said that in some countries, like Argentina, high government taxes mean there is a very significant gray market in cellphones, which IDC doesn't track.' Now new survey data from Kantar Worldpanel uggests that Windows Phone is indeed gaining some sort of momentum in some parts of the world: Android was responsible for 51.2 percent of smartphone sales in the U.S. for the quarter ended February 2013, followed in second by Apple's iOS with 43.5 percent, with Windows Phone edging up into third place with 4.1 percent. BlackBerry trailed in fourth with 0.7 percent, down significantly from its 3.6 percent market-share last year. That doesn't mean that Windows Phone will prove any sort of champion in the near term, but maybe the platform isn't totally on life support."
Re:Has anyone actually seen a Windows Mobile phone (Score:5, Interesting)
> millions of Windows Mobile Phones are sitting in a warehouse somewhere?
or reflashed to Android. Don't laugh. The Htc Touch HD ended up being one of the best Android phones, ever... and firmly convinced most of Microsoft's remaining mobile developer ecosystem to say "Fuck Microsoft" after their flagship phone with 16 months left on-contract was cruelly & prematurely EOL'ed for the crime of having 4 hardkeys instead of 3. Yes, read that again. It had 4, and some tool @ Microsoft decided to officially shun it because Windows Phone devices were required to have exactly 3 buttons.
Re:Maybe you are ignoring the real reason ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ignoring the rather dubious maths. (Score:4, Interesting)
"It shows how well Linux shines compared to Microsoft when Microsoft it unable to use its Oppressive Microsoft Monopoly [or simply by being one] can successfully restrict competition."
It's funny you used to say this, I used to work local government here in the UK quite some years back and the head of IT there was as corrupt as they come* in signing up a massive multi-million pound deal with Microsoft for their software assurance programme. They didn't even evaluate FOSS at the time precisely because it was such a whitewash of a deal - the only contender they bothered to evaluate was Microsoft, so no wonder they won the bid - it's kind of easy when the person deciding on the bid wont let anyone else put a bid forward.
Fast forward to today and I'm told by an old friend who still works there that they're getting rid of all their Blackberries after all this time and are replacing them with... Windows Phones. That means a few thousand windows phone sales right there.
This is just one of 468 councils in the UK. Multiply this sort of backhander deal across all of the councils where there is trivially corruptible IT management, multiply it across the world and it's no surprise Windows Phone is gaining market share.
*I know this for a fact, because I was working in a conference hall that had a stage with curtains prior to a conference and was fixing some broken network points behind the curtains when he wasn't aware I was there. I heard him talking to the Microsoft sales rep about everything from how they both fiddle their expenses to how they were looking forward to getting the deal signed before it had even gone out to tender.