But... but...
... Windows Phone isn't in third place.
Mozilla has announced that smartphones running Firefox OS have arrived, with Telefonica-owned Spanish mobile phone operator Movistar promising delivery of the first low-priced phones on Tuesday. The Firefox shop announced on Monday that Alcatel's One Touch Fire handset, along with the ZTE Open, which will be distributed by …
"Windows Phone isn't in third place."
Yes it is. It hasn't overtaken Apple just yet. But that will come.
Windows Phone is up to 8.8% market share in the UK as of the end of April and 5.6% in the USA and growing market share rapidly. In comparison the #4 player is Blackberry on 0.7%....(As per Kantar April 2013 figures.)
Personally I think the Firefox OS will join Jolla and Symbian on the bottom of the pile...It has nothing much to differentiate it, and lacks the funding of Microsoft, Samsung, etc.
That's 'Total Smartphone Subscribers' - i.e. installed base. Not market share of sales - which for Windows Phone in the US is up to 5.6% from the last Kantar numbers in April.
Also those numbers are only from the US, which is one of the worlds least significant markets. Nokia were previous #1 globally without even having a US presence...
"Nokia were previous #1 globally without even having a US presence..."
Indeed, also on that note, I'm sad to see the article repeating the myth: "For five years, it has been Apple's iPhone and ad giant Google's Android OS which have held the top positions in the mobile world, and carriers don't like that."
Which is not even remotely true. The top position was Symbian until 2011, then overtaken by Android. Iphone only moved into 2nd place some time *after* that, after Symbian being dropped. Apple never had the top position. Before, it's been 3rd, 4th or even 5th place, in that 5 year time frame.
The statement might be more true if looking solely at the US, although BlackBerry also had a significant share there until more recently.
> Yes it is.
No it isn't.
Oh yes it is: http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/2013/05/21/windows-phone-overtakes-blackberry-as-third-largest-os/
> It hasn't overtaken Apple just yet. But that will come.
No it won't
More intelligent people than you say it will: http://www.information-age.com/technology/mobile-and-networking/2106893/windows-phone-will-overtake-ios-by-2016-idc-predicts
> Windows Phone is up to 8.8% market share in the UK as of the end of April and 5.6% in the USA and growing market share rapidly.
No it isn't.
My bad - actually 8.4%: http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/Global/News/While-Android-Leads-iOS-and-Windows-Are-Growing-At-A-Faster-Pace
http://www.zdnet.com/windows-phone-climbing-in-uk-but-cheap-androids-reign-in-spain-and-italy-7000016253/
More intelligent people than you say it will: http://www.information-age.com/technology/mobile-and-networking/2106893/windows-phone-will-overtake-ios-by-2016-idc-predicts
Here's some more people who are more intelligent than me :- http://www.pyramidresearch.com/points/item/110509.htm
Bet they wish they'd been Anonymous Cowards now too, don't they?
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2013/05/q1-numbers-in-bloodbath-year-four-smartphones-galore.html
Installed base is 5th place, behind Simbian and Blackberry, and barely ahead of bada. Market share is 3%. Remember to go for sales figures, and not get fobbed off with numbers shipped. The carriers hate Microsoft, and the manufacturers do not expect Windows to sell - all except rapidly fading Nokia.
The carriers want a third ecosystem, but it has to be ABM. The obvious guess is Tizen, but Mozilla, Ubuntu and Sailfish mean they are spoiled for choice. I would like to see them pass that choice on to customers - start with a dual or triple boot phone. Try each OS for a bit, then delete the ones you do not want.
the more I believe it would be a good idea for Mozilla and Microsoft to team up and go to war against Apple and Google.
Still have IE and Firefox separate, but have Microsoft's financial muscle behind a friendly open-source organisation and switch IE's rendering engine to Gecko from Trident. It'll take that sort of opposition to prevent Webkit from Borg-ing the entire web.
If done right Firefox will push Microsoft into fourth but to Google's detriment.
With its initial offerings Mozilla is quite clearly aimed at the budget user, emerging markets and people going from feature phones to smartphones. Microsoft's WP8 has almost no presence in this market, the Nokia 520 is really at the top end of this category in both price and spec and its unlikely customers at that level would be choosing between a Nokia and a Firefox powered ZTE. What they would be choosing between is a Firefox phone and the various landfill Android handsets that make up a large portion of Google's market share and every Firefox mobe sold will be one less Android sold, not one less iPhone or WP8 handset sold.
Of course this is all dependant on carriers and manufacturers backing it.
Please, please, can we stop quoting Kantar? Their figures are survey-driven, NOT based on sales figures - sold, shipped, or anything else real-world - so they're open to extreme error.
As for IDC, I'm afraid they've been caught bending figures for pay so many times in the past that they can be disregarded as a reliable source.