IDC: Windows Phone Shipments Surpass BlackBerry

According to market research firm IDC, Windows Phone is now the third most popular mobile platform, beating BlackBerry for the first time ever in the first quarter of 2013. However, it has a long way to go to catch Android, which accounted for 75 percent of the smartphone market.

The Inquirer’s Lawrence Latif reported, “According to IDC’s shipment figures, seven million Windows Phone devices were in the retail channel in the first quarter of 2013, 700,000 more than devices running Blackberry OS. Devices running Microsoft’s mobile operating system made up 3.2 percent of the market, which represents a 1.2 percentage point increase from the same period last year.”

InformationWeek’s Eric Zeman noted, “Android shipped on an incredible 75% of all smartphones during the first quarter of the year. Total Android shipments reached 162.1 million devices compared to 90.3 million in the year-ago period. Apple’s iOS is a distant second now.”

AppleInsider’s Neil Hughes added, “Apple’s iOS accounted for 17.3 percent of smartphones shipped in the first quarter of the year, down from 23 percent a year ago. Still, Apple saw its strongest first quarter ever in terms of shipment volumes, as the company already announced last month it shipped a record 37.4 million iPhones.”

BGR quoted IDC’s Ramon Llamas, who said, “Underpinning the worldwide smartphone market is the constantly shifting operating system landscape. Android and iOS accounted for more than the lion’s share of smartphones in the first quarter, but a closer examination of the other platforms reveals turnaround and demand for alternatives. Windows Phone has benefited from Nokia’s participation, and BlackBerry’s new BB10 devices have already hit a million units shipped in its first quarter of availability.”