There are only small declines in few markets

Oct 8, 2015 04:45 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is getting ready to introduce Windows 10 Mobile, but in the meantime, Windows Phone keeps improving in several markets across the world and data provided by Kantar comes to confirm this.

In the three-month period ending August 2015, Windows Phone managed to gain share in Germany, the UK, France, the United States, China, Australia, Japan, and the EU5 region, while also losing only few users in Italy and Spain.

Specifically, Windows Phone posted a 3.6 percent market share increase over the same period of the previous year in Germany where it grew to 10.5 percent. Android recorded a dramatic decline here, down 7.1 percent to 75.2 percent. iOS and Windows Phone are the big winners, with gains of 4.6 and 3.6 percent, respectively.

In the United Kingdom, Windows Phone grew by 0.3 points to 11.3 percent, while Android lost 5.2 percent to 54.1 percent and iOS improved by 5.8 percent to 33.7 percent.

Where it's losing users

The two markets where Windows Phone actually lost users are Italy and Spain, down 0.8 and 0.3 percent, respectively, but Microsoft's mobile operating system is still doing very well in the first. Italy is actually the number one European market for Windows Phone right now, as it holds a 13.7 percent market share there. It's already above iOS, which is powering only 10.6 percent of the phones in the country, but well behind Android – 74.8 percent.

“Windows Phone share has experienced some growth in France, Germany, and Australia, and maintained share elsewhere, but we have not seen any major impact on the overall market, despite some aggressive price points. At the Windows 10 New York launch on October 6, we saw Microsoft refocused on offering a companion phone for users of Windows 10, and enterprise-class devices to IT departments – a more modest goal perhaps, but certainly a more realistic one,” Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, said.

With Windows 10 Mobile just around the corner, seeing Windows Phone growing bigger is certainly encouraging, but it's all up to the new Lumia devices to continue this ascending trend. Time will tell if Microsoft can become a winner in mobile and really compete against Android and iOS.