Microsoft's Windows Phone platform, and its Lumia phones, may have been bested only by Apple and Samsung in holiday sales. According to a new research report, during the week of December 19-25, new activations of those phones accounted for 5.8% of all smartphones worldwide, placing Microsoft in third place ahead of every other smartphone maker aside from Apple and Samsung.

The report comes from Flurry, which got its information based on the over 600,000 apps that it tracks with its analytics services. Apple's devices were first with 51.3% and Samsung's products came in second with 17.7%. Microsoft's Lumia phones were ahead of companies like Sony, which had 1.6% for fourth place, and LG with 1.4%. Flurry added:

"Up-and-comers Xiaomi, Huawei, and HTC all had less than one percent share on Christmas Day. One reason is surely their popularity in Asian markets where December 25th is not the biggest gift-giving day of the year."

The report doesn't state what specific Lumia devices were being activated the most during Christmas week. Hopefully we will learn more when Microsoft reveals its sales number for its Lumia devices in January as part of its latest quarterly financial results.

Source: Flurry