Every month we look at numbers from AdDuplex, the cross-promotion network for Windows Phone and Windows 8 apps. Those numbers give us an overview of how the Windows Phone market has been doing the past month. It’s also an opportunity to potentially spot some new handsets before they come out.
Today we’re looking at the numbers for the month of April. Windows Phone 8.1 became available last week through the Preview for Developers program. Did it make it into the stats?
Windows Phone 8.1 Preview already 3.1% of installed Windows Phone base
This is actually pretty remarkable when you consider who right now can install Windows Phone 8.1. The only way to get Windows Phone 8.1 is to have an existing Windows Phone 8.0 handset and intentionally join the Preview for Developers program. You can’t buy the Lumia 630 or Lumia 930 yet with Windows Phone 8.1 yet. The update isn’t available to average consumers with an OTA update. You really need to manually install it.
It’s a little humbling to see that only 3.1% of the entire Windows Phone population is running Windows Phone 8.1. It was estimated by AdDuplex back in January that there were about 50 million Windows Phone 7.x and 8 devices in the world. Assuming that's accurate, 3% would equal just over 1.5 million devices. The last time we checked with Microsoft, the Preview for Developers program had less than 200,000 users, making this some very significant growth.
Though it’s called Preview for Developers, it’s really an enthusiast program and many of you out there are running it without ever having written a line of code in your life. That means we, as enthusiasts, make up just three percent of the user base. We really are the vocal minority huh?
Windows Phone 8 is chilling at 78.0% marketshare, while Windows Phone 7.x is clinging to life at 18.9%. It won’t be till later this year that a lot of folks with Windows Phone 7.x will finally have their two-year contracts end. We’ll probably see a big drop in those numbers late this year.
Nokia still king
Is there really any surprise here? Sure, Samsung does have a new Windows Phone 8 handset out with the ATIV SE (see our hands-on), but Nokia is still the only OEM pushing hard with Windows Phone. Nokia controls 93.5% of the market, while HTC holds 4.4%, Samsung at 1.3% and Huawei with 0.8% bringing up the rear. It’ll be interesting to see how this picture looks later this year when all the new OEMs join.
Lumia 520 rocking the top
Again, no big surprise here. The Lumia 520 is still the most popular Windows Phone out there. It controls 34.4% of the global Windows Phone market. Not surprising for a phone that you can pick up for under $100 and in most places, plus if you’re really lucky can find it around $50-$60. Number two is the Lumia 920 at 6.4% and the Lumia 625 in third at 6.3%.
United States / Carriers
Last month Verizon had only 13.4% of the Windows Phone marketshare for carriers here in the United States. Did the Lumia Icon help push sales? Looks like it. Verizon moved up ever so slightly to 13.7% of the carrier share. AT&T is still on top at 34.0%.
United Kingdom
It’s been awhile since the AdDuplex numbers looked at the UK. Curious to which Windows Phones are popular there? Of course you are. Surprise, it’s the Lumia 520 on top at 39.7% of the market. Followed by the Lumia 620 and the Lumia 920. You’ll see a trend of the Lumia 520, Lumia 620 and Lumia 920 all controlling the top positions for most countries.
China
Head to China and you’ll find a slightly different picture for the Windows Phone landscape. On top isn’t the Lumia 520, but the Lumia 920 at 21.2%. It’s also one of the few countries where the Lumia 1020 and Lumia 1520 (two very high-end phones) do well enough to show up on the charts. Most countries will have those devices grouped into the ‘other’ category because they have such low marketshare.
Philippines
In the Philippines the Lumia 520 reigns supreme at 28.6% of the market. It’s followed by a handful of other low-end devices like the Lumia 625, Lumia 610 and Lumia 800.
Misc.
- Italy – Lumia 520 at 32.1% and Lumia 820 at 9.6%
- German – Lumia 520 at 18.6% and Lumia 920 at 14.2%
- Australia – Lumia 520 at 29.3% and Lumia 625 at 11.9%
No new handsets
Normally these AdDuplex reports will show a new handset or two on the horizon. Unfortunately we’re not seeing anything new on the radar this time. RM-1045 are 1080p 5-inch devices that have been popping up around the globe, which means it’s probably the Lumia 930. That’s about it.
Look forward to the full report on the AdDuplex blog tomorrow!
Want to win a Nokia Lumia 720, a Nokia Lumia 1320 or a Huawei Ascend W1? Then participate in the monthly photo challenge and their app publishing competition. Just head over to the AdDuplex blog for full details!
Data souce: This report is based on data collected from 3886 Windows Phone apps running AdDuplex SDK v.2. The raw data analyzed was collected over the day of April 17th, 2014 (UTC time) unless otherwise stated. We have made every attempt to consolidate different reported phone model names under their canonical retail model names, but it is possible that some of the rare model name variations were not accounted for.
Thanks Alan (@ailon) for sharing the numbers!
