Windows Phone has been growing at a steady rate, mainly down to advertising campaigns and brand pushes from Nokia with its Lumia family of smartphones. According to data released today by IDC, the platform has been sporting a year-on-year growth increase of 115% - not bad, eh? IDC also notes that the OS has been closing the gap between itself and Blackberry in the last quarter in the fight to become the 3rd major player in the smartphone market.

Looking at the table above we can clearly see the advances Windows Phone is making as a whole, which is very promising. Beating not only the iPhone, but Android with regards to growth with 5.4 million units reportedly being shipped in Q2 2012 (up from 2.5 million in Q2 2011). It definitely shows the platform has real potential to play catch-up. Unfortunately, according to the marketshare figures, Windows Phone (3.5%) is still a long way behind both the iPhone (16.9%) and Android (68.1%) before it poses a real thread.

Blackberry (4.8%) is dropping along with Symbian, which will provide Microsoft with the opportunity to take 3rd position in the mobile market. This would be a milestone for the platform to reach to then further increase its marketing efforts using the newly acquired position as proof that it's not only on the rise, but Microsoft is further integrating the platform with other products to increase exposure and audience.

Of course, as usual, Windows Mobile is still included with Windows Phone, so we're not quite at the 3% marker with Microsoft's new mobile platform alone. Though with Windows Phone 8 just around the corner, we like to believe the push from the software giant will be sufficient enough to further build momentum for Windows Phone while its predecessor continues to phase out.

We'd like to know your thoughts on the advances Windows Phone is making prior to Apollo being released. How do you believe Microsoft can improve their marketing strategy should they reach the 3rd position and sport full integration then available between its products and Windows Phone?

Source: IDC