Gartner has just released some numbers describing the worldwide mobile market, and while these numbers haven’t been confirmed by the companies concerned, they still provide a valuable estimate of how things are going out there. Total handset sales grew nearly 20% over the same period last year, with smartphone sales nearly doubling. Android long ago passed up Symbian, and iOS showed huge sales gains but modest market share gains, being countered by Android’s explosive growth.
One little blip worth noting is the modest but not insignificant 1.6 million Windows Phone 7 sales. For an OS in its infancy, from a company whose mobile strategy has been the subject of ridicule for years, 1.6 million is a perfectly strong start. If they keep that up and add a few on top, they could sell 10 million phones this year, which, while paling in comparison to the 50 million iPhones and 100 million Android phones (give or take a million score), is far from a failure. Whether it’s enough for Microsoft is something we’re unlikely to find out directly from them. But it’s no Kin, that’s for sure.
Android had a slow start too, and WP7 is still undergoing serious changes. I’d like to see this interesting and different OS improve and sell more, though of course it depends on how hard Microsoft works to push out updates and the speed with which that Nokia partnership takes effect.
Note that Microsoft hasn’t actually released this info, it’s an estimate by Gartner, presumably based on data from carriers, retail, and other trackers. Check out the rest of the report here.