We just came across Nielsens US Smartphone installed base numbers for Q3 2012.

At first glance it does not appear to be the greatest news, with Windows Phone only holding 2% share in this period.

However when compared to Q2 2012, when Windows Phone only held 1.3% share, meaning 0.7% of more than 120 million smartphone owners adopted Windows Phone between Q2 and Q3 2012. Comscore has confirmed to me the 2% represents only Windows Phone devices, with Windows Mobile lumped into the other category.

This is about 54% growth from one quarter to another, compared to 3% growth for iOS and 2% growth for Android.

In terms of absolute numbers the numbers are not that impressive, but still interesting â€“ Windows Phone attracted 0.7% new Windows Phone users, while iOS and Android both added 1% â€“ pretty good performance for a new OS, and before the Nokia Lumia 920 arrived.

We know Nielsen does not support this, but if we multiply Nielsenâ€™s percentages by Comscoreâ€™s September numbers, which shows 119 million smartphone users in the 3 months ending September 2012, we have about 2.4 million Windows Phone users in the USA, 41.7 million iOS users and 61.9 million Android users.

In June 2012, using the same method, and with 110 million US smartphone users, we have 1.43 million Windows Phone users, 37.4 million iOS users and 56.1 million Android users.

This would mean Windows Phone added around 1 million users from Q2-Q3 2012, while iOS added 4.3 million users, and 5.8 million users.

Clearly still a long way to go, but with Windows Phone growing faster than the market and actually gaining share, who is to say we will not get there eventually?