“Microsoft Windows Phone overtook BlackBerry OS to become the third largest smartphone platform in the influential United States market during Q4 2012,” Strategy Analytics notes.
“It was the first time Microsoft has surpassed Blackberry since 2006. Meanwhile, Android lost share in annual terms for the first time ever.”
The research firm also raises a question regarding Google’s Android operating system, wondering whether it has finally reached its “peak.”
One thing that should be noted, however, is that BlackBerry was in a difficult position in the fourth quarter of the last year.
BlackBerry (previously Research In Motion) was getting ready for the launch of a new flavor of its operating system, namely BlackBerry 10, and customers’ interest was turning towards this platform release.
Furthermore, Windows Phone took advantage of appealing new launches in the quarter, including Nokia’s new Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 smartphones, as well as HTC’s Windows Phone 8X and 8S.
During this quarter, however, we can expect for a tight competition between Windows Phone and BlackBerry, especially with new Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10 smartphones available in more markets around the world.
For the time being, however, Android and iOS remain the leading operating systems on the smartphone market, and both BlackBerry and Windows Phone will have a hard time grabbing market share from them, even if analysts did say before that Microsoft’s platform would become a top three mobile OS in a couple of years.
