Windows Phone pips BlackBerry OS to no. 3 as smartphone sales overtake feature phones

Gartner’s report on worldwide mobile phone sales has brought along not one but two important pieces of information – smartphone sales have overtaken those of feature phones for the first time ever, and the Windows Phone OS has finally come into its own, overtaking BlackBerry to be the no. 3 smartphone OS.

Smartphone sales have shot up by a whopping 46.5 percent this quarter and sales have hit 225 million as compared to the same period last year. Feature phone sales, on the other hand, have fallen to 210 million, a 21 percent decline since the last year. Regions like Asia Pacific, Latin America and Easter Europe accounted for the highest smartphone growth rates of 74.1 percent, 55.7 percent and 31.6 percent respectively.

Smartphone sales overtake feature phones for the first time

Samsung has managed to hold on to the top position in the global smartphone market with its share of smartphone sales going up 31.7 percent from 29.7 percent last year. Apple saw 32 million units being sold, up 10.2 percent from last year.

Windows Phone has overtaken BlackBerry to become the no. 3 OS for phones with 3.3 percent of market share. A little over 7.4 million units of Microsoft’s Windows Phone have sold in this quarter while BlackBerry has sold only 6.1 million units. Comparatively, last year BlackBerry was taking long strides ahead with 7.9 million units sold and 5.2 percent market share. Windows Phone OS was lagging behind with a 2.6 percent share and 4 million units sold.

Anshul Gupta, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner, said, “While Microsoft has managed to increase share and volume in the quarter, Microsoft should continue to focus on growing interest from app developers to help grow its appeal among users.”

Android, on the other hand, is firming up its position as market leader as far as smartphone OSes are concerned, with 79 percent marketshare. iOS still has a lot of catching up to do despite being second on the list with 14 percent marketshare.