14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Phone continues to be the world's third most popular smartphone operating system, but the latest statistics provided by Kantar show that it's becoming a much more popular choice for new phone buyers in Europe.
Microsoft's smartphone operating system managed to score an increase of 0.9 percent in a three-month period ending February 2015. It thus reached a market share of 10.1 percent in Europe, enough to secure it the third place in the charts, after Android and iOS.
Of course, Windows Phone still has a very long way to go to compete with Android and iOS, as they still have a market share of 67.6 and 20.9 percent, respectively. The good news, for Windows Phone users at least, is that Android lost 2.9 percent of its users in the three-month period monitored by Kantar.
Big increases in some countries
Stats show that Windows Phone managed to score pretty big market share boosts in some European countries, but at the same time, it also lost users in others.
For example, the biggest gain was recorded in France, where Windows Phone managed to increase its market share to 14.2 percent, up 5.9 percent from the same three-month period the year before.
The YoY comparison also shows a 4.3 percent increase in Australia, where Windows Phone is now powering 9.3 percent of the devices, but on the other hand, it also reveals a drop of 2 percent in Australia (currently at 2.9 percent).
In the United States, Windows is not at all doing very well, but it still has a share of 4.8 percent, well behind Android with 55.6 percent and iOS with 38.8 percent.
The main reason for Windows Phone's impressive comeback in Europe is most likely the introduction of new affordable devices that made Microsoft's mobile operating system and devices accessible to more buyers.
This scenario is also supported by the drop recorded by Android, as Microsoft's affordable phones are specifically designed to compete with Android, which is also available on a number of budget models across all markets.