sales

Windows Phone continues slow and steady growth in UK

April 26, 2012 | By Surur

Its Kantar time again. The market research company has released their latest figures for the preceding 12 weeks ending the 18th March 2012.

The figures show a small gain by Windows Phone, from 2.5% last month to 2.6% this month. Year on year Windows Phone grew from 0.6% a year ago, a 333% growth YoY. Symbian is now only 2% of the UK market, down from 12% last year and 2.4% last month.

Android held 50% of the market while iOS had 29.2%, and Blackberry 15.7%.

52.2% of the British population now own a smartphone, with smartphones making up 74.4% of sales over the 12 weeks.

Via 3g.co.uk

Thanks Arun for the tip.

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Analysts dial back Windows Phone expectations

April 25, 2012 | By Surur

Last year we saw a number of analysts predict Windows Phone would eventually overtake iPhone and take second place in the market share battle after Android.

While the analysts did not admit this, the claim seems largely to be based on the assumption that Nokia would be able to convert 100% of their Symbian users to Windows Phone 7.

However much like how Microsoft lost most of their Windows Mobile user base to the Android and iPhone, Symbian users are also rapidly converting to Android, leaving those analyst predictions looking pretty uninformed.

Now iSuppli and IDC have modified their predictions, and no longer predict a second place for Windows Phone by 2015.

IHS senior analyst in wireless communications Wayne Lam says the firm has "ratcheted back" its claims, now predicting Windows Phone will land in third position, behind iOS and Android.

Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team, says IDC has only slightly lowered its market share expectations to 20.1%, but has also erased the difference separating it from iOS, predicting WP7 to be "pretty much statistically tied with Apple" by 2016.

The analysts blame the reduced expectations on the success of the Bring Your Own Device model, which sees uses bringing their own iPhone or Android phone to work, instead of having a device like a Blackberry or Windows Phone imposed on them.

“We can definitely say that it’s no longer a top-down decision. We’ve gone to a new era in mobility, and especially enterprise mobility, where the end user is definitely having a voice," Lam said.

The analysts still however see the possibility of consumer success for Windows Phone, with Llamas pointed to the Lumia 900, which he says is a strong consumer smartphone with an interface and user experience that are comparable to those of the iPhone or many Android devices.

Nokia Lumia 900 launch accelerates Windows Phone Facebook user growth

April 25, 2012 | By Surur

Much faster than usual, the number of Windows Phone integrated Facebook users increased by another 100,000 to 1,800,000. While in recent months it has usually taken around 21 days for this number to increase by 100,000, it only took 15 days on this occasion.

Using our usual ratio this translates into more than half a million additional users over the last 2 week period and around 12 million active Windows Phone users in total.

The increased run rate would indicate around 185 thousand Nokia Lumia 900 and HTC Titan II users over the last 2 weeks since the launch of these handsets.

Of course this number excludes Chinese Windows Phone sales, who do not benefit from integrated Facebook functionality.

Using Facebook numbers sales still seem to be on track for >3 million new Windows Phone sales, although with the recent acceleration this number may reach up to 4 million.

Thanks JP for the tip.

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Windows Phone crosses 1% US web traffic for the first time

April 24, 2012 | By Surur

While we do not expect the massive boost in Windows Phone market share in USA as in Finland with the introduction of the Nokia Lumia 800, we have been keeping a close eye on statcounter’s USA stats to see the influence of the Nokia Lumia 900 launch on the Windows Phone US presence.

The number reveals that the Windows Phone share of web traffic in USA has for the first time crossed the 1% mark, with a clear inflection point at week 14 2012, with the launch of the Nokia Lumia 900.

At a rough guess we would estimate around 100,000 Nokia Lumia 900s have been sold, which would of course put the handset on track for 1 million sold if sales are maintained.

On a side note, Statcounter recently restated Symbian and S40 numbers, resulting in Windows Phone now being clearly ahead in web traffic terms in USA at 0.6% vs 1%.

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White Nokia Lumia 900 unboxed (video)

April 22, 2012 | By Surur

WPCentral have managed to grab the last white Nokia Lumia 900 in New York and posted the above unboxing video.

They note the store manager from the New York branch where they picked it up said sales for the Nokia Lumia 900 have been brisk, even for the out of stock Cyan Nokia Lumia 900.

More White Nokia Lumia 900 stock is expected to arrive tomorrow. Are any of our readers picking one up? Let us know below.

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Nokia Lumia 800c in second spot on China Telecom’s sales chart

April 19, 2012 | By Surur

Nokia’s finances are not doing too well, with a massive drop in sales and market share in some of their strongest traditional markets like China.

The company is looking at ramping up their Windows Phone 7 range to compensate for rapidly flagging Symbian sales

The CDMA Nokia Lumia 800c launched on China Telecom about 2 weeks ago to large crowds and queues, but of course that does not really tell us how well the smartphone is selling there.

Queues for the Nokia Lumia 800c launch in China

Reader HH has however tipped us of to a sales chart on China Telecom’s website showing the handset is pretty well positioned, just behind the wildly popular Apple iPhone 4S.

Hopefully by adding the Nokia Lumia 610 at a much lower price to their Chinese range they will have more than an isolated handset doing well, but closer to a full range which can make up the volume missing from Symbian’s demise.

Thanks HH for the tip.

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Large Gizmodo store survey finds Nokia Lumia 900 "selling like crazy”

April 18, 2012 | By Surur

It seems Nokia may have a hit on their hands. Gizmodo performed the largest survey of AT&T stores to date, sampling a total of 36 stores, and found the handset was selling very well.

The survey included 36 stores in major malls around USA and Gizmodo was told most of them were running out or very low on stock.

We talked to salespeople at 36 AT&T stores in major malls around the country, and where we learned that generally, they had sold out within the first couple of days after the phone’s launch. The phone is "doing pretty fabulous" one Illinois rep said. They’re "selling like crazy," an Ohio employee boasted. A Philadelphia location was the sole spot that said it hadn’t sold out at all.

They note however that initial stock was very low to start with, with most stores starting with only 3-4 of each colour, giving a maximum of 8 per store. AT&T has about 2,200 locations in USA.

While being sold out is good news, of course not having any handsets to sell is bad news. Corroborating our earlier article, they were also told that stores were expecting to be re-stocked the next day or later in the week.

It seems however we may actually start seeing early morning queues at stores, usually an iPhone and iPad phenomena.

Gizmodo notes:

But a sales guy in Colorado, who was the one doing the ordering, felt pretty certain the cyan Lumia 900 is just about sold out in the U.S. He said there were a few arriving in the states, but no one is certain where they’re going. This was corroborated by other locations. A South Dakota store expecting four of each color only received two in black. Another in Massachusetts noted that if you want one, you have to check back daily. A Syracuse employee seemed sure the device is on back order now. Just about everyone said they were busy.

Who knows, maybe both Microsoft and Nokia has convinced consumers to look past the specs to buy what would in USA be a pretty unique and “beautifully different” handset.

Read the full article at Gizmodo here.

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Nokia Lumia 900 spends a week on top of Amazon Best Seller list, Cyan now also sold out there

April 15, 2012 | By Surur

Its now been a full week since the release of the Nokia Lumia 900 on AT&T, and while no sales numbers have been released, there have been some indication that “sales have exceeded expectations”. One of these have been the Amazon Best Seller sales charts, where the Nokia Lumia 900 has been dominating for the whole week, holding the top 1st and 2nd position for most of the week.

Today the Black Nokia Lumia 900 is still sitting in the top spot, while the Cyan one has slipped to the 6th position. The reason for this however is not flagging sales – it seems the handset is no longer in stock on Amazon, now being back ordered with shipping dates in 1 to 2 weeks.

Of course another indication is AT&T selling out of the handsets, with even ATT.com not having either colour in stock. This situation appears to have continued today.

It seems the handset is currently a victim of its own popularity, not something said very commonly of either a Nokia or Windows Phone in USA.

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Now both Black and Cyan Nokia Lumia 900 out of stock on ATT.com

April 14, 2012 | By Surur

It seems the great Nokia Lumia 900 shortage of 2012 has started, as both the Black and Cyan Nokia Lumia 900 has become unavailable both at AT&T stores and now also online.

We have had reports that stock in stores have been recalled to be flashed with the LTE fix before sale, and other readers have said the second shipment of handsets have been delayed for the same reason, but it seems sales diverted to AT&T’s website has depleted whatever stock they had in their inventory system also.

Of course the handsets are still available at Amazon.com (affiliate link) where it continues to dominate the sales chart. It seems however unless Nokia can pull of a restock as smoothly as they did the software fix it will be a dry weekend for the Nokia Lumia 900.

Have any of our readers been unable to purchase the new Nokia flagship due to shortages? Let us know below.

Thanks Tintin for the tip.

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AT&T President: Lumia sales have exceeded expectations

April 12, 2012 | By Surur

In a pretty negative article at the Wall Street Journal, there is one bright point for Nokia.

According to Paul Roth, AT&T’s president of retail sales and service, Nokia’s Lumia 900 sales have exceeded expectations.

In fact, sales have been so good some stores have sold out of the device—particularly the blue variety—by Tuesday evening, only the second day of general availability.

We have complained of AT&T retail staff, but according to a report Nokia has giving out 10,000 Lumia handsets to around 26,000 AT&T staff to ensure they are familiar with the handset.

"They gave us devices to give to our employees at a level I’ve never seen a manufacturer ever do," said . "Nokia did something pretty bold here."

We have seen secondary evidence of good sales via Amazon, but it is good to hear this is also reflected at retail stores itself. Who knows, maybe selling 1 million in 3 months, which would satisfy analysts, or only around 10,000 units per day, may be possible after all.

Thanks enohptramS for the tip.

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A good AT&T Windows Phone experience is possible

April 11, 2012 | By Surur

Store 1444, 24TH AVE NW, SPACE 105 NORMAN, OK 73069, where staff actually know how to sell Windows Phones.

We have ranted about AT&T pushing consumers who are interested in Windows Phones to iPhones and Android handsets. While we have had numerous reports that this is indeed happening, we also had a few that suggests not all AT&T staff are totally biased against Windows Phone.

PG writes:

Just wanted to let you guys know of a good experience I had at AT&T today contrary to other at&t stores being failures.

I’m on a prepaid plan so went into an at&t store to buy the Lumia 900 on contract and change to post paid to benefit from LTE in my market. I walked in the store and first thing I see is a woman that is with an associate – he’s telling her all about the Lumia 900 very enthusiastically, she ends up buying the device. My goal was to buy the Lumia all along but I wanted to play dumb (my last device is the htc hd7), so I ask another associate if they have Lumia’s in – he says yes here let me go get you one – black or cyan? I pick black.

He goes into the back and grabs one – tells me they had 10 in stock and only have two left now. So before the woman and myself they had sold six of them.

Mind you this is a small college town and we have about 3 other at&t corporate stores with a few more at&t resellers here too, and this store isn’t in the middle of town.

So I’m asking him about WP7 acting dumb about the OS. He’s telling me all about the great features and how iPhone is outdated, he then is telling me how android is laggy and crashes too much and he’s had both an iPhone and android. I am trying to act objective and keep asking which is better iPhone, android or windowsphone and he’s pushing the Lumia to me very hard – he doesn’t know at this point that I’m prepaid and figures I’m in there to renew contract or upgrade so this isn’t a ‘big’ sale for him.

He pulls his phone out and its a Lumia 900, he tells me he’s had it for 3 weeks now and loves it.

He goes on about telling me more about the features, he makes sure I get the LTE 4g data package and visual voicemail is working. Over next to me is the woman also buying her Lumia and the associate there is also well informed and telling her how the OS is really good; she came from an iPhone.

I then let him in on that my previous phone is a WinPhone HD7 and that I develop for the platform , and he’s telling me all about the features of the hd7s so he’s pretty knowledgeable about their stock of windows phones. So not all at&t stores are filled with mindless iPhone zombies. Here’s the store – they should get some credit for being trained properly.

The story suggests Microsoft’s training is working after all, and just needs to reach more AT&T staff. Maybe it is just a question of time after all.

Thanks PG for the tip.

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Nokia lowers Q1 2012 guidance but reveals how Windows Phone is boosting numbers

April 11, 2012 | By Surur

Nokia has issues some guidance around the performance of the company in Q1 2012, but has also revealed how rapidly Windows Phone is taking over its smartphone sales.

Stephen Elop has revealed the company has sold “more than 2 million Lumia devices at an average selling price of approximately EUR 220” out of a total of 12 million smartphones sold. That leaves 10 million Symbian handsets giving Windows Phone 17% of the smartphone sales in the company.

The company however generated EUR 1.7 billion in revenue, with EUR 440 million coming from Windows Phone sales, leaving EUR 1.26 billion coming from Symbian sales.

This means Windows phone sales are now more than 26% of the revenue from Nokia’s smartphone division, a more rapid rise than I think the company expected.

Using those same figures, one can see Windows Phones sell for nearly double the price of Symbian phones, meaning the company would not have to sell as many Windows Phones as Symbian Phones to make the save revenue (and hopefully profit).

Windows Phone sales do seem to be ramping up nicely however, with Nokia saying “Nokia has seen sequential growth in Lumia device activations every month since starting sales of Lumia devices in November 2011. Lumia has gained market share with both distribution partners and consumers.”

Stephen Elop saying:

"Within our Smart Devices business unit, we have established early momentum with Lumia, and we are increasing our investments in Lumia to achieve market success. Our operator and distributor partners are providing solid support for Windows Phone as a third ecosystem, as evidenced most recently by the launch of the Lumia 900 by AT&T in the United States."

"We are continuing to increase the clock speed of the company. The change is tangible, and we are proud of the way Nokia employees are quickly responding to the needs of consumers and partners."

With Nokia Lumia sales pegged at around 2 million handsets, and the company more than 50% of the Windows Phone 7 market, we would estimate Windows Phone sales of around 3 to 4 million handsets in Q1 2012, in line with our estimates based on Facebook Active users.

See the full press release here.

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Windows Phone has 7% market share in Norway, already 3rd ecosystem there

April 11, 2012 | By Surur

Netcom, Norway’s second largest carrier, has released some sales figures for the month of March.

Besides revealing that for the first time since the list has been published that the iPhone has been displaced from the first position by the Samsung Galaxy S II, they also revealed that Windows Phone holds 7% market share for sales in March, slight down 1% from February, when the Nokia Lumia 800 launched. The Lumia 800 was however able to retain its 4th position on the list.

It is believed the fall of the iPhone from the top spot was due to market share stolen by the Nokia Lumia 800, clearly a real competitor it seems

They also revealed that Symbian sales are now non-existent on the carrier, and in the absence of any other smartphone OS sales Windows Phone was now the de facto only challenger to the iPhone and Android duopoly.

Android	iPhone	Windows Phone	Total
50%	43%	7%	100%

Norway is of course not Finland, which has a strong loyalty to Nokia, and where good Lumia performance was a near foregone conclusion. The stats therefore show great progress for the OS, which will hopefully be built on by the release at the high end of the Nokia Lumia 900 and the low end by the Nokia Lumia 610.

Via Digi.no

Thanks Tord for the tip.

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