Report: Windows Phones Gain In EU, Struggle In US, China

Kantar Worldpanel ComTech today reported that Windows Phones are seeing meaningful share gains across a number of European countries. In particular, Germany, UK, France and Italy are emerging as strong markets for the platform.

The Microsoft OS has also grown in a number of other countries such as Mexico and Australia. However it continues to tread water or struggle in the US and China.

Across the “EU5” Windows Phone has gone from 4.9 percent a year ago to an 8.2 percent share in July 2013. Kantar reports that Windows Phone has seen success among first-time buyers, “with 42 percent of sales over the past year coming from existing feature phone owners.”

In contrast with the half-point Windows Phone share gain in the Kantar US data, comScore estimates show Windows Phone adoption is basically flat.

Nielsen shows Windows Phones with an even lower 2 percent US market share in Q2 this year.

Another point worth noting, the Kantar data show a nearly 8 percent loss of market share for Android in the US. Such a claim is difficult to reconcile with the comScore and Nielsen data above.