Canalys estimates that in Q4 2012 Windows Phone managed to double shipments to 5.1 million units, up from 2.5 million units in Q4 2011.Â This took Windows Phoneâ€™s market share from 1.6%Â then to 2.4% last quarter, a small but significant increase.

While this is well below our expectations, it still leaves Windows Phone as the fastest growing operating system last quarter, with 104% growth, vs 83% for Android, 29% for iOS and â€“42% for Blackberry.

Old enemy Bada, which has been a common source of ridicule for Windows Phone, has now finally fallen down into the â€œotherâ€ group, with much less than 3 million shipments, causing the other group to swell from 1.8 to 3 million shipments in total and leaving Windows Phone in the 4th spot.

With Nokia declaring 4.4 million Windows Phone shipments in Q4 2012, if Canalysâ€™s numbers can be believed, it leaves HTC and the other Windows Phone OEMs only shipping 700,000 handsets, with Nokia taking 86% of Q4 2012 Windows Phone shipments, a number above even the 75% most estimate.

It is of note that these numbers are wildly out of keeping with Microsoft’s own legally binding statementsÂ to their share holders which said “Windows Phone sales were over 4 times greater than last year.”

In the usual absence of any pronouncement by Microsoft we will have to wait and see what the other analyst companies like Gartner announce, but so far we have solid but unimpressive growth.

Via Engadget.com