back to article iPhone 5 totters at the top as Samsung thrusts up UK mobe chart

Apple’s three most recent mobiles together took more than a quarter of smartphones sales in Britain during the first three months of 2013, we're told. The iPhone 5 was the period’s most popular handset, but the Cupertino giant's UK market share continues to be eroded by Android - and even Windows Phone 8. Google’s Linux- …

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  1. FartingHippo
    Thumb Up

    Back from the brink?

    Great news for Nokia, and good for everyone to have a third player in the market.. I hope their market share continues to rise.

    1. Pie
      Thumb Up

      Re: Back from the brink?

      It seems have a good product at the right price helps :)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Back from the brink?

      Global marketshare for Windows Phone has fallen.

      Sorry, if you hoped there might be some worth in your Nokia share, I have bad news for you. Windows Phone is dead. Users are finding out the hard way that it's a obsolete OS, when all their apps aren't available. They look on at their friends with great iOS and Android apps, and then find nothing but tumbleweed on the Microsoft store...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Back from the brink? (@ AC ...)

        Hi, Eadon! :o)

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Anecdotal

      The next phone I buy will be a Nokia Windows phone - not for me (I now have enough Android apps purchased that I'll be staying there for a while) but for someone who trusts me with the shopping.

      She's looked at all the commonly available phones around at the moment and genuinely prefers the Windows interface, likes the way the Nokia phones look and work (including the cameras which seem better than the competition for the price), and is not at all bothered about how many applications are available as long as Angry Birds is one of them.

      This pretty much reinforces the vague feeling I had that Nokia / Windows isn't inherently useless, it's just a bit too late to the market in the UK - I know way more people who are locked into Apple than I do people who are buying their first smartphones.

      I'm really not sure there's enough there for them to pick up enough share to be a real third player - I think they'll have to eat into the Android market if they are to do it and that means competing on feature / price ratio.

    4. Paul 135

      Re: Back from the brink?

      I really wish Nokia would stop being Microsodt's lapdog and drive hard Mer + Qt-based phones (e.g. Sailfish etc. though I'm not a fan of gusture-based UIs such as that in Sailfish).

      After all, it looks like Mer + Qt is going to be the most open of all mobile platforms, and it would be such a shame to see the company that invested so much to make both happen not profit from them.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Played

      With a friends S4 today, nice phone if not a little plasticky and cheap, vibrant screen and lots to adjust and fiddle with. It really appeals to the geek in me.

      However, his biggest complaint, the take your eyes off it and the video will stop function has now stopped working and the hover your fingers above the screen does not work.

      He has only had to reset it twice from frozen screens.

      Will I buy one?

      Hmm that is the question.... Nope.

  2. RyokuMas
    Thumb Up

    Not out of the woods yet...

    Nokia have still got a lot of ground to make up to become a contender, although it is good to see them - and the Windows Phone - looking more and more like a viable option.

    Lack of love in the US pre-dates the Microsoft-Nokia partnership by a long way, so it would be foolhardy to state the the drop in share on the other side of the pond is solely due to the WinPhone OS - thought undoubtedly some will...

    There's still a long way to go, and any slip-up now could result in disaster, but at the moment, the long-game-plan appears to be moving in the right direction - this side of the Atlantic at least.

    1. DrXym

      Re: Not out of the woods yet...

      My wife was picking a phone to replace a broken Lumia 800. The choice was between a €129 Luma 520 or a €149 Huawei G5120. Even though the Lumia 520 would have had a more familiar experience, the Huawei was in most regards a better phone for only a little more. She chose the Huawei.

      In Nokia's defence I doubt it would have had as much Vodafone crapware as the Huawei did. Nor would I have had to spend a considerable amount of time replacing the godawful Huawei launcher with the ADW launcher to give the phone some semblance of sanity.

  3. Bell Meister
    Facepalm

    Nokia get back some share

    Lets all hope WP turns into a swan sooner than later.

    OS really is king these days as build quality has risen across te board.

    I can't see RIM clawing back any real market share - too little - far too late

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Blah blah yet more balanced and impartial reporting of Apple / Samsung. Yawn.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It helps when Samsung are giving away free tablets with phone contracts, cameras etc. and spending about 10x more on marketing than Apple.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Ah, here we go with the Apple apologists and their reasons that their beloved Apple is slipping.

      It's 'cause everyone else is cheating, don'tcha know?

  6. James Hughes 1

    Blimey

    Eadon's on a role on this topic. Same old, same old though. It appears the needle is stuck.

    1. Shagbag
      Thumb Up

      Re: Blimey

      On the contrary. I find the read quite entertaining. Which is, I suspect, the intended effect.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Blimey

        @Shagbag

        Well he's giving me RSI - can't he wrap his comments into one post so I only have to downvote once....

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    Mistake in article - please correct

    "Compare that to the US, where BlackBerry is now down to 0.9 per cent of the smartphone OS market, and Windows Phone declined year on year, from 9.7 per cent to 5.8 per cent"

    There seems to be a mistake in the article. The latest Kantar numbers for March says US Windows Phone share is 5.6%, up from 3.7% a year ago.

    Windows Phone is growing nearly everywhere, and now has a 6.5% market share in Europe (EU5), which is 1/3 of Apple's share (19% and dropping). It is not inconceivable that Windows share could pass iPhone share by next year in Europe - will Eadon's head assplode?

  8. Jah

    HTC One Black - no stock

    The HTC One has been difficult to buy and the Black version nearly impossible to get. So HTC will do well in the next quarter look-back but not as well it could've done!

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: HTC One Black - no stock

      I don't understand what's happened to HTC.

      Sure they've been overtaken by Samsung, who make their own components and have a nice marketing budget. But HTC still seem to put out some nice handsets, and they do metal ones with rubber coating to Sammy's preferred plastic - so should have some shiny factor. I can understand them not making profits, as the competition has certainly hotted-up in the last few years, but I'm surprised by how few sales they seem to make.

      1. NinjasFTW

        Re: HTC One Black - no stock

        well for me personally it was after buying the Desire Z for a premium price only to be told later that they wouldn't be updating the O/S even though it could physically support it.

        There were also a couple of really annoying bugs with their sms and mail apps that I never received replies to etc.

        It was a decent phone on day 1 but I will never buy from HTC again due to their post sale support.

        1. Test Man
          Stop

          Re: HTC One Black - no stock

          NinjasFTW - same experience for me but with HTC Desire HD. Burned once, still suspicious of HTC, especially with their "flagship" claims.

        2. Brenda McViking
          FAIL

          Re: HTC One Black - no stock

          Exactly the same here. Promised upgrade to a HTC HD2 from WinPho 6.5 to 7 that never materialised. Had to root to install android, which was great, but it was an annoyance everytime it needed a reset.

          As a result, neither Microsoft nor HTC are getting a look in for my next "upgrade." Also, the HTC One, whilst shiny, is an awful flagship - no removable battery or uSD card? they're my main gripes with the flippin iPhone, for goodness sake.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: HTC One Black - no stock

        It's probably down to the fact they are playing second fiddle in both markets they are in. When you've got limited shelf/stock room space you are going to back the winners, for Android that's Samsung and for WP8 that's Nokia.

        Perhaps it would be better for HTC to go all out WP8 like Nokia and get an equal share of the admittedly small pie and Microsoft's money then to try and compete against Samsung on quality because it isn't enough.

    2. Shagbag
      Thumb Up

      Re: HTC One Black - no stock

      What you're seeing is HTC slavishly copying Apple.

      HTC have followed the Apple model of restricting manufacture so that they can claim they've 'Sold Out' of handsets to import some sort of 'runaway success' in the minds of potential buyers.

      While the effect usually lasts only a few days before people get wise to it, Apple has learned that most of its purchasers will never admit to being duped so they keep the handsets.

      Apple have worked very hard over the last decade or two to sell 'the image' rather than 'the machine'. Because of this, there are a devout number of Apple-owning consumers who think it's cool to own last year's technology in today's designs and they proudly go around displaying their i5s like the Emporer displayed his new clothes.

      The question that remains to be answered is if HTC can perform the same.

      1. Wam

        Re: HTC One Black - no stock

        One thing I've noticed recently is that people with iPhone 5's DON'T appear to be proudly displaying them around - an interesting development, if you ask me.

        1. steve 102
          FAIL

          Re: HTC One Black - no stock

          That's me all over; even replaced the stupid case I was given with the work iphone5 that had no hole in the back - why on earth would I want people to see that I'm carrying an iPhone 5? Apart from to get that self satisfying smile as they look at you & think 'unlucky, enjoy your iPhone & its tendency to make you want to smash it & replace with something that has a modern interface'

  9. nuked
    Thumb Up

    I have an HTC Windows Phone 8x, and aside from the size of the app-store currently, I couldn't be happier. It's only a temporary drawback (I hope), but was well-reflected in the deal I got. Unlimited data, no upfront cost, and £23 p/m for 24 months.

    1. sandman

      HTC 8x

      Nice phone - one or two apps aren't available that I'd like, but the OS is fine, prefer it to my ageing iPhone (which I keep just for two apps and some music I haven't been able to move over - works fine as a media player). One advantage is that it can be much cheaper than the top end Lumias, if you can live without some of the bells and whistles.

  10. Arctic fox
    Trollface

    If I could be bothered to take part in this argument.........

    ..............I would point out that on a thread like this a certain gentleman's postings vary in inverse proportion in intensity and number according to how scared he is that it might, just possibly. be good news for Nokia (or Redmond for that matter). On the basis of his contributions to this thread my statistical analysis says that the Finns are doing gangbusters.

    PS. Yes, I am being a trifle satirical.

  11. Shagbag
    Thumb Up

    Impartial Opinion

    I've read through all the posts and I've considered the arguments on both sides.

    Having done this there's one central thread running through all of the posts and it's this:

    Microsoft have failed with Windows Phone.

    They've failed spectacularly. If you look in a dictionary (a non-US dictionary), under the word 'Failure' you'll see a picture of a Windows Phone. No words. Just the picture. No words are needed.

    As for all you people who'll down-vote this post or claim that it's wrong (which it isn't)... well, you can all go and get fucked. Because you're all wrong. Wrong to the max. You're so wrong there's a picture of you in the dictionary - right under the word 'Wrong'. It's my bat, my ball and I make the rules. And you're wrong.

    Android has won. Get over it.

    1. Arctic fox
      Thumb Down

      Re: Impartial Opinion "Impartial Opinion?" Since when have a series of opinionated........

      ........assertions been any kind of "impartial opinion"? I think that it is you who need the services of the dictionary old chap.

    2. Don Jefe

      Re: Impartial Opinion

      Neither my Spanish, Basque or Greek dictionaries seem to back you up. None of them were purchased in the U.S. What gives?

    3. Tom Maddox Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Impartial Opinion

      Excellent Eadon impression, with the exception of not posting "MICROSOFT FAIL" at the end.

      9/10.

  12. mark l 2 Silver badge

    Microsoft have the problem that although Samsung do offer phones with Windows installed they are kind of treated like the red head stepchild and pushed to the back of their offering in favour of Android.

    Maybe Samsung have reasons not to want to get too involved with MSFT after years of being a Windows OEM for their computers they fear that if Microsoft get too much of a share on phones they will start to bring in restrictions on what the OEMs can do (such as offering alternative OS's)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The conspiracy theory is that by releasing Android phones with WP8 blonked on them Samsung is still entitled to kickbacks from MS, and is taking those kickbacks to leave less in the pot for HTC and Nokia. This is a move to hold WP8 back so Samsung has weakened opponents, MS and Blackberry, when it releases its Tizen phones and pushes for 3rd spot.

      If Samsung get 3rd spot with Tizen they are firing a shot across Google's bow showing they don't need Google but as the number one Android handset seller Google needs Samsung to maintain market share which is vital for an ad based revenue stream. This of course gives Samsung a much stronger negotiating position with Google and would eclipse the money spent on "developing" WP8 handsets.

  13. Greg D
    Thumb Up

    WinPhone 8 is good

    Not for me, since I'm already fully on Android... but my old man uses it, and he loves it. Everyone I've spoken to, including devout Apple lovers have enjoyed using it. Businesses (including mine, in which I am a senior systems engineer) are loving it with its easy integration and UI.

    I've used it myself a few times and personally find it quite nice to use. Smooth, fluid, does the job well, no real hassle getting it setup etc.

    I refuse to believe anyone can convince me that WinPho 8 is a bad OS (especially Eadon since he tends to err on the side of batshit stupid), because from a functionality and usability standpoint, it ticks more boxes than Apple's IOS, and is pretty close to being as nice as Android.

  14. Spanners Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    More anecdotal "evidence"

    My wifes phone was an ageing HTC. When the time came to replace it, our iPhone using children suggested that she try "that nice one that Holly Willoughby advertises".She has had it a week now and it works excellently.

    The interface is as pretty as an iPhone except that it is actually functional.

    As a non-geek, my wife doesn't give a monkeys about how sparse the store is. It came with Angry Birds and other things.

    The phone side works as does the texting and the camera is "really good".

    This looks like a mass-market device to me.

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