July 19, 2012, 9:19 PM — Its going to be a long, dry summer for Microsoft and Nokia, with consumers roundly rejecting Windows Phone 7 and little hope that things will improve until Windows Phone 8 launches this fall. Despite a critically acclaimed OS that is popular with people who actually own a Windows Phone, Microsofts next-generation smartphone OS just cant catch a break.
Nokia, Microsofts biggest Windows Phone smartphone partner, announced that it shipped just 4 million Lumia phones worldwide between April and the end of June. Nokias biggest rejection came in North America, where the company during the recent quarter shipped just 600,000 Windows Phone and Symbian devices.
Compare that to Samsungs upcoming earnings announcement, which is expected to include sales of more than 50 million Android-powered smartphones over the past three months. And Apples most recent quarterly numbers reported iPhone sales topping 35 million. Even the struggling Research In Motion saw a bigger demand for BlackBerry phones, shipping 7.8 million devices between March and early June.
Windows Phone Gets Smoked
Nokias struggles in North America are no surprise, given the paltry adoption of Windows Phone in the U.S. A recent report by Nielsen pegged Windows Phone 7s American market share among smartphone users at 1.3 percent. Thats less than Windows Mobile, Microsofts previous mobile OS, which is still holding strong at 3 percent of U.S. smartphone users. Nielsen in May put Windows Phones market share at 1.7 percent in the U.S., with Windows Mobile making up 4.1 percent of smartphone users. Android is in the lead in the U.S., holding 51 percent of smartphone users, followed by Apples iOS at 34 percent and Research in Motions BlackBerry at 9 percent.
