Report: Windows Phone 8 Usage Surges

Windows Phone 8 usage is up big-time in the US and abroad

New Windows Phone usage data shows that Windows Phone 8 handset usage made a huge leap in December, jumping from 5 percent of the market a month ago to almost 20 percent this month. The big winner, as before, is Nokia’s Lumia 920, despite fairly limited availability.

The data comes from mobile ad firm AdDuplex, which will release a full report later this week. (Last month, I used AdDuplex data in the post Interesting Windows Phone Stats. This can be considered a follow-up to that report.

Here are some interesting tidbits from the report:

Most popular Windows Phone handsets: Nokia Lumia 710 (20 percent, down from 24 percent), Nokia Lumia 800 (18 percent, unchanged month-over-month), Nokia Lumia 610 (16 percent, down from 17 percent), Nokia Lumia 910 (9 percent, up 3x from just 3 percent), and Nokia Lumia 900 (6 percent, down from 7 percent).

Windows Phone 8 surges. Usage in Windows Phone 8 jumped from 5 percent of total Windows Phone usage in December to 19 percent in December. (Windows Phone 7.5 is responsible for all of the other 81 percent.) “Most of this growth happened at the expense of the older models,” AdDuplex notes, which I assume indicates that the overall size of Windows Phone usage didn’t grow much? But it’s not all bad news: In the US, Windows Phone 8 represents a whopping 43 percent of usage. All of those gains are new device sales.

Windows Phone 8 models. All Windows Phone 8 models saw big gains in the month. The best-seller, again, is the Lumia 920 (9 percent), followed by the HTC Windows Phone 8X (3 percent, up from less than 1 percent), and Nokia Lumia 820 (3 percent).

Windows Phone models in the United States. In the US, things are quite a bit different thanks to the prevalence of AT&T, which has been selling multiple Windows Phone models for two years. The top device here is the Lumia 920 (16 percent), followed by Lumia 900 (14 percent), Lumia 710 and HTC 8X (both 11 percent), Lumia 822 (10 percent), and the HTC Radar 4G (8 percent).

Carriers in the United States. As expected, Windows Phone carrier usage is dominated by AT&T (51 percent), followed by T-Mobile (27 percent), and Verizon (16 percent). I expect a big jump from Verizon in the months ahead though.

Windows Phone 8 models on AT&T. The Nokia Lumia 920 generates the most usage (71 percent) of AT&T-based Windows Phone 8 handsets, followed by the HTC 8X (18 percent) and Lumia 820 (11 percent). In the US, “there are more Lumia 920 devices in use than any other Windows Phone,” AdDuplex notes. “That’s a very notable achievement for a device that is only available on one operator and constantly suffered from supply shortages.”

International stats. AdDuplex’s report contains information about other countries as well. Stay tuned.

According to AdDuplex, the data in this report comes from Windows Phone apps that use the AdDuplex SDK. AdDuplex describes itself as a cross-promotion network for Windows Phone and Windows 8.

Discuss this Article 18

tboggs13
on Jan 7, 2013

I was in a Verizon store yesterday. The Windows Phone display was right next to the register/sales associates. While there, I heard a sales associate present all three platforms as an option, including Windows Phone. I believe it went something like, "Yes we have iPhones but you will find we have mostly android phones and also Windows Phones over here." That's about as a positive a presentation for Windows Phones that I have heard in a store. The customer had great interest in Windows Phone and the sales associate seemed to be doing a good job presenting. Unfortunately, I didn't get to stay around to see if the sale was made.

jeffsters
on Jan 7, 2013

Sadly Verizon and AT&T sales people are spiffed. They sell what makes them $$$. When picking up a new SIM card at the AT&T store I heard the sales associate tell a customer that the iPhone couldn't read office documents so they should go with Android. I just shook my head and got out as fast as I could.

RJasonW74
on Jan 8, 2013

So you're saddened that a commissioned sales associate promoted something they made commission on? That's a 1st world problem for sure my friend.

pratnala
on Jan 7, 2013

But, how is Windows Phone's usage as a total percentage of the market?

jjMustang79
on Jan 7, 2013

"New Windows Phone usage data shows that Windows Phone 8 handset made a huge leap in December, jumping from 5 percent of the market a month ago to almost 20 percent this month."

henador
on Jan 7, 2013

The post you responded to asked about WinPhone's overall market share (iOS, Android, etc.), which is still in the low single digits. This Thurrott article is only referring to WinPhone8's share of the WinPhone market. In addition, the report claimed that most of WP8's gains came at the expense of WP7, not people moving over from iOS or Android. About the only good news is that this indicates WP has developed some "brand loyalty" with its users.

mod6538
on Jan 7, 2013

That's 20% of Windows Phone market, not overall smartphone market (which is still in low single digits)

jjMustang79
on Jan 7, 2013

Misunderstood what was being communicated here until I read it with different wording on another site. Windows Phone 8 has 20% of the total Windows Phone market, not the cell phone market.

Rudy Grayson
on Jan 7, 2013

The reality is that Microsoft's WP8 freebie upgrade program for its employees has played a fairly significant role in these numbers.

pthurrott
on Jan 7, 2013

The reality is that that assertion is not true at all.

MorganRW
on Jan 7, 2013

This is not true. In fact Microsoft announced that employees needed to wait for their free phone due to short supply.

pthurrott
on Jan 7, 2013

Either way, it doesn't matter. Even if every single one of Microsoft's 90K employees started using Windows Phone every day, it wouldn't move the dial at all on usage.

Asgard
on Jan 7, 2013

Isn't this a very bad news? If Nokia had sold 7M WP 7.x devices in September (maybe 9M today), this data suggests that they have sold only less than 2M WP8 devices? I have very much hoped for 8-10M combined 7.x and 8 sales for Q4.

qhendricks
on Jan 7, 2013

I'm still waiting on Sprint to actually come out with a WP8 device in early 2013. I really don't want to have to jump carriers and pay more money per month, but I seriously want a Win phone. :(

If Sprint doesn't get on the boat soon, I'm afraid I'll have to jump ship just so I can use the device I want.

MikeS
on Jan 7, 2013

This news is good news for WP users, but it doesn't mean a thing for the market at large. I hope WP sees at least a modest bump in Comscore or equivalent overall mobile marketshare from 2012, or early '13.

saqrkh
on Jan 7, 2013

There's nothing in WP that will make it disturb the current market. The only thing MS can do is throw money at WP and scratch towards a noticeable market-share in the medium and long-term. Attaining some 5-10% of the market in 5 years wouldn't necessarily be bad. Is it small relative to others? Of course, but the mobile phone market will have grown to the point where that 5-10% could consist of many users one day - enough for developers to enter and support.

Harry_Wild
on Jan 7, 2013

WP market share should increase worldwide because of WP8 and Nokia's presences. But how much is the question. Love to see 2% increase from November to January worldwide. I think that would be a doubling of market share!

corgalore
on Jan 8, 2013

The retail phone stores make or break the sales of phone platforms. When I picked up my Lumia 920, one of the sales associates asked me, 'Why do you want THAT thing?' I proceeded to tell him how every feature of it was equal to or greater than his Android. The AT&T sales staff are not being educated on their products.

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