On Friday, we asked our readers what Windows Phone 8 device they were leaning towards for their next purchase. And although HTC has yet to unveil their new phones, it appears that Nokia has by far demonstrated their dominance amongst our readership.
The poll was simple: Choose one of four new Windows Phone 8 devices, including the Nokia Lumia 820, Lumia 920, Samsung ATIV S or the HTC Accord (a device all but officially confirmed at this point for release).
Answers were randomized for selection and duplicate voting was blocked via IP and browser-cookie control. Total amount of respondents came to a sizeable 7,568 individual votes, making the sample size extremely reliable as ratios tend to lock-in at around 2,000 votes.
To say it was a blow out would be an understatement as our poll results usually tend to be a lot closer rather than an overwhelming clear winner. This time however, it was very different.
The Nokia Lumia 920 managed to carry away a massive 81.4% of the total sample (or 6,160 individual votes). Next up was the Lumia 820, which came in with 7.76% (587 votes) just edging out the Samsung ATIV S with 7.44% (563 votes). At the bottom was the HTC Accord, a device not yet publicly shown resulting 3.41% total or just 258 votes.
It's a clear winner, taking 81% of the vote
Analysis
As we previously mentioned, usually our results are a lot closer but here, we can see a clear winner with the Lumia 920. Although the 920 builds off of the 900 in terms of design, bringing only slight modifications to the polycarbonate look, it is apparent that our audience was heavily impressed with the new technology behind the upcoming flagship phone, including NFC, wireless, inductive charging, PureMotion HD+ Super Sensitive display and the PureView 8.7MP camera with optical-image stabilization—a first for a smartphone.
Seeing as over 80% of our readership wishes for this phone, it is evident that they still prefer the “Nokia look” on the high-end Lumia line and that the Finnish company has done a good job convincing customers that the 920 is the phone to have this year.
Falling behind expected levels, the Samsung ATIV S
Seeing the Samsung ATIV S ranked so low when compared to the Lumia 920 is certainly surprising. The ATIV S is an extremely thin but seemingly powerful Windows Phone 8 device with excellent design and a massive 4.8” display. However, while the phone looks to be a winner, besides being thin with a large display, it does not bring any new technology to the table—it doesn’t push the boundaries. This may explain why the 920 faired so much better since it actually had a few “firsts” for a smartphone.
Likewise with the 820—certainly a solid phone but with its 800x480 display and lack of OIS in the camera, most of our readers seem more impressed with the Lumia 920.
Now about that HTC Accord. If there were one phone is getting under-appreciated it would be that one due to obvious reasons: it has yet to be officially announced, thereby skewing the results for it downwards.
Having said that, it is clear that HTC would really need reveal some “alien tech” to woo the 920 crowd over to such a phone and while Beats Audio and Super LCD2 will certainly make this phone a winner, it’s not clear that those two features alone will cause HTC to gain significant marketshare.
But there is one ‘X’ factor for HTC and that would be their rumored ‘Zenith’ phone. The device is expected to have a huge 4.7” screen and the first quad-core Snapdragon S4 CPU. The only problem here is either HTC is being very tight lipped about it or the phone may not get its big reveal on September 19th as we’re only hearing about two phones being announced.
But assuming this flagship HTC phone does exist, will it be enough to gain ground on the 920 for our readers? With over 80% of nearly eight thousand readers opting for the 920, that’s a tough hill for HTC—or anyone else—to climb.
We’ll of course do a follow up poll after HTC’s announcement to see if anything has changed.
