Despite buy-one-get-one promotions at both AT&T and T-Mobile, the Windows Phone 7 OS claimed less market share than its predecessor, Windows Mobile, for which handsets are still available at all four major U.S. carriers. Windows Phone 7 also entered the market with lower share than either Android or webOS at their debuts, according to NPD’s Mobile Phone Track.
Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD said int he press release, “Android will encounter greater competition this year, however, as Apple’s iPhone 4 — the best-selling handset in the U.S. — debuts on Verizon Wireless.”
Based on U.S. consumer purchases of mobile phones in Q4 2010, for the first time there were no feature-phone handsets in NPD’s top-five ranking as all top-selling mobile phone models were smartphones.
Top Five Handset Models Were All Smartphones in Q4 2010
1. Apple iPhone 4
2. Motorola Droid X
3. HTC EVO 4G
4. Apple iPhone 3GS
5. Motorola Droid 2
Source: Mobile Phone Track – NPD’s consumer tracking of U.S. consumers, aged 18 and older, who reported purchasing a mobile phone. NPD does not track corporate/enterprise mobile phone purchases.
MacDailyNews Take: NPD does not track corporate/enterprise mobile phone purchases, a large market segment where Apple is reportedly doing very well, so keep that in mind when perusing theses “market share” numbers. They measure a specific portion of the U.S. mobile phone market (consumer) that favored Android which was heavily pushed and BOGOF’ed by Verizon before they attained a deal with Apple for the real iPhone. As Rubin mentions in the press release, everything changes going forward, including the portion of the market covered by NPD.
UPDATE: 4:15pm EDT: And, oh, Windows Phone ’07 – heh, we totally forgot about it – is, as we predicted, a dud. Pray for Balmy.
Wow, even the older model made the top five.
This is like Amazon, where several iPod accessories outsell the first competitor. If iPods, etc were bad products, these trends wouldn’t continue. People know what they want. It doesn’t just look cool; it works well.
I saw a Windows Phone 7 unit the other day. Not sure what make or model, but it was freakin’ HUGE! At first, I thought it was a 7″ tablet. Then I realized it was a phone and thought, man, there’s no way that would fit in a pocket. No way.
Failure of design.
I’m surprised Ballmer hasn’t been canned yet.
Wow, what was it 2007 when Microsoft’s WinMo still had 20% of the US smartphone market, and now they’re down to 5%, 2% if you look at their future. That’s worse than what has happened to Nokia which had over 60% of the market and now is down to 28%. No wonder Nokia and Microsoft are going to announce a get-together on Feb. 11.
More like a resounding “Plop”…
Hail the King Ballmer … Hail to the King Ballmer ….. Everyone drop to their knees and Hail to the King Ballmer and may he remain atop MSFT for many many many years to come …..
HAIL BALLMER
I actually like the Windows Phone 07 ads, where they point out the “That Guy” characters, always looking at their phones and never interacting with real life.
Last week, I saw my first Windows Phone 07 in the wild.
I had a clear look at the screen, and it almost felt like the user was trying to get me to see him use it.
We were in a café, waiting for our beverages at the counter.
WinPhone 07 guy diddled on his phone through the ordering process, continued while he waited for his drink, and he never even stopped fiddling with his phone the whole time his daughter (<– I guess) tried to talk to him.
Funny, this Windows Phone 07 user was “That Guy”.
RE: ‘07
As ever, MDN’s apostrophe for abbreviation is the wrong way round.
I know that Microsoft Word etc cannot determine the correct way round and always assumes that you are opening a quote when one type a single or double-quote character.
But there really is no excuse to constantly get it the wrong way round in headlines.
@I can haz
That’s because MDN is written by a bunch of acne-ridden 16 yr olds. Isn’t that obvious?
@jdi & I CAN HAZ
I’m not here for the proper punctuation, I’m here for the news.