This is my problem with taking anything that analysts say for granted — they can be completely contradictory, but still right. Two major reports recently came out, one from comScore, the other from StatCounter [via WMPU], both of which paint very different pictures of how Microsoft is doing with WP7.
According to StatCounter, from January to March, Windows Phone has gained marketshare from 0.14% to 0.28% of users — this is based on pageviews from mobile browsers, I believe:
StatCounter is a web analytics service. As of 1 June 2010, our tracking code is installed on more than 3 million sites globally. (These sites cover various activities and geographic locations.) Every month, we record billions of hits to these sites. For each hit, we analyse the browser/operating system used and we establish if the hit is from a mobile device. For our search engine stats, we analyze every hit referred by a search engine. For our social media stats, we analyze every hit referred by a social media site. We summarize all this data and this is how we get our Global Stats information.
On the flip side, comScore is showing Windows Mobile is losing marketshare: from November 2010 to February 2011, falling from 9% to 7.7%
I get that these are from different time periods and different measuring methodologies, and the latter is smartphone only, but man, those numbers are completely freaking different! Like orders of magnitude different. Is it growing or shrinking? Less than 1% of marketshare, or more than 7%? How do you even parse that?
Both are likely accurate: Windows Mobile (6.x) marketshare is falling, while Windows Phone 7 marketshare is rising.