Windows Phone Sales Still Headed South

Despite the praise and developer interesting, Windows Phone is still getting creamed by Android and Apple.

Smartphone sales are doing fantastic even in this crummy economy, but Microsoft isn't getting in on the action. Sales of Windows Phone are, in fact, dropping, while Android is steamrolling everyone.

According to the latest numbers from Gartner, smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2011 reached 115 million units, up 42 percent from the third quarter of 2010 and up 7 percent from the second quarter of 2011. Smartphones now account for 26 percent of all mobile phone sales worldwide.

Unfortunately, Windows Phone isn't a part of that growth. Windows Phone 7 were just 1.7 million units, down from 2.2 million in the third quarter of 2010. Windows Phone's market share has dropped from 2.7 percent in 2010 to 1.5 percent in 2011. Only Symbian took a bigger hit, from 29.5 million units sold in 2010 to 19.5 million sold in 2011.

This is a real, numeric decline. Research in Motion, which is getting all the attention as a company in decline, lost share – from 15.4 percent in 2010 to 11 percent in 2011 – but its unit shipments actually went up slightly, from 12.5 million to 12.7 million.

Android, on the other hand, almost tripled its unit sales to 60.5 million in Q3. Its market share is now 52.3 percent of the total smartphone market. Symbian is in second place with 16.9 percent, although a year ago it was 36.3 percent.

iOS is in third place with 15.5 percent, and that is down as a percentage, from 16.6 in 2010 to 15.0 in 2011, although its numbers are up, from 13.5 million to 17.3 million in the course of a year. Apple's percentage drop despite increased sales is simply due to Android growing so fast and so large.

The one bit of good news for Microsoft, at this point, is that Windows Phone 7 does have strong developer interest. A survey by Appcelerator/IDC survey found that 38 percent of developers are "very interested" in developing for the platform, an 8 percentage point increase.

Even though both companies are in separate freefalls, the Microsoft/Nokia partnership does seem to have interest. When asked why they are more interested in Windows Phone 7 now they were a year ago, 48 percent of developers said it was the Microsoft/Nokia partnership.

The only positive I can see is that sales trailed off in anticipation of Windows Phone 7.5. This happened to Apple as well. iPhone 4 sales stalled as people waited on the new phone. Whatever the reason, you guys in Seattle and Helsinki really need to get those phones on the market in a hurry…

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