Kantar Worldpanel announced its smartphone figures for the three months ending in July.
Apple continued to sell well in the US where it was 43.4% of sales an increase of 7.8% over last year for the three months ending in July and that was even with iPhone 5S anticipation in full swing. Android lost -7.6% of market share from 2012 for the same period.
Window Phone gained in Europe with a 8.3% share in five major European markets(UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain). In Mexico, Windows Phone is the number two spot with 11.6% of sales.
Windows Phone, sales were driven largely by cheaper Nokia smartphones such as the Lumia 520, which account for one in 10 smartphone sales in Britain, France, Germany and Mexico.
Most of Windows Phone's growth is from first time smartphone buyers. Only 27% of Apple and Android users change their OS when they replace their handset.
Android takes the cake (or shall we say Kit Kat) across the major European markets and China where it accounted for around 70% of smartphone sales during the past quarter.
BlackBerry now accounts for just 2.4% of sales across the big five European markets and 1.2% in the United States.
“Apple and Android must focus on a balance between retaining existing customers and attracting feature phone owners to trade up if they want to continue their success over the next year,” says Dominic Sunnebo, Kantar Worldpanel analyst.
The place where the big competition for new buyers is from the first-time buyer and cheapskates, which is where the iPhone 5C may come in to be big player.