Analysts Claim Windows Phone Will Outsell iOS By 2015

According to the iSuppli Mobile & Wireless Communications Service at information and analyst firm IHS, Windows Phone market share will surpass iOS in a few years, due mostly to Nokia’s support of the mobile OS.

Microsoft has been fighting an uphill battle with its Windows Phone mobile operating system since the OS’s introduction in late 2010. Despite mostly positive reviews, a healthy app ecosystem that is growing at a steady pace, and regular updates that have added more features and functionality to devices running the OS, Windows Phone has failed to win over consumers and give Microsoft any significant foothold in the mobile space. In fact, Microsoft has lost smartphone market share since Windows Phone’s introduction.

Market analysts at iSuppli, however, believe that Nokia’s dedication to the Windows Phone platform and the company’s recent release of the Lumia 900 (and other Windows Phone-based devices) will spur a renaissance for Nokia and Microsoft that will ultimately result in huge market share gains over the next few years. In a press release posted on the iSuppli website, the firm postulates, “With the introduction of its critically acclaimed Lumia 900, Nokia Corp. has set the stage to regain some of its lost smartphone market share—and to re-establish Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone as a leading contender in the cellphone operating system (OS) business.” I have little doubt that the Lumia 900 will be the most successful Windows Phone to date; it is a beautiful device. As nice as the Lumia 900 is, however, I don’t think it has enough appeal to spur the kind of growth iSuppli predicts.

“One of the hottest new products unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show was the Lumia 900, a Windows Phone-based smartphone sporting a flashy set of features that makes it competitive with the best alternatives offered by the Android camp,” said Wayne Lam, senior analyst for wireless communications at IHS. “This hot product represents Nokia’s first step to reclaim its market share. Combined with Nokia’s efforts to drive the development of the Windows Phone ecosystem, the Lumia 900 and its successors will help Microsoft to reclaim its No. 2 ranking in smartphone operating system market share in 2015.”

The Nokia Lumia 900 clearly generated significant buzz at CES, but there aren’t any stand out features that differentiate it from some of the higher-end devices running Android, save perhaps for its 12MP camera. The Lumia 900 does stand out from the current crop of Windows Phone-based devices, and has many features that are more appealing than those of the iPhone 4s, but it’s not the device’s appeal alone what iSuppli will push Nokia and Microsoft forward. It’s Nokia’s targeting of the North American market and the company’s leveraging of the mobile network operator (MNO), and Microsoft’s business / enterprise sales channels—which they haven’t historically done—which iSuppli believes will help Nokia (and in turn Microsoft) significantly.

Also from the release, “Although Nokia is not the only seller of Windows Phone smartphones, the company is expected to dominate the market, accounting for 50 percent of all Microsoft OS-based handsets sold in 2012, IHS iSuppli predicts. The company’s share then is set to rise to 62 percent in 2013. Nokia’s portion of the market will begin to decline in 2014, as other companies increase their sales of Windows Phone products.”

iSuppli’s prediction that Nokia will dominate in the Windows Phone space seems feasible. The massive growth the firm predicts in general, however, seems highly optimistic at best.

• Smartphones
• Android
• IOS
• iPhone
• Lumia
• Microsoft
• Nokia
• windows phone