Nokia claims 59% of worldwide Windows Phone market: Study

While Samsung may have claimed Nokia’s crown as the world’s largest mobile phone company, there is still at least one product category where Nokia remains ahead: Windows Phones.

According to figures released by market research firm Localytics, Nokia claims 59% of the worldwide Windows Phone market, ahead of Samsung (13%), HTC (21%) and all others on 7%.

Interestingly, however, Nokia remains relatively weaker in the United States, where it claims just 32% of the market, below rival HTC on 36%, but still ahead of Samsung on 26%.

While there has been strong year-on-year growth for smartphones and tablets running Windows, increasing from 1,723,800 to 4,087,000 according to recent market research from Gartner, it still represents just 2.7% of the market, putting its marketshare at just over half that for RIM/BlackBerry.

The overall weakness in Windows Phone led Nokia to a disastrous second quarter in which it sold just 600,000 mobile phones in the US, including 300,000 of its Windows Phone-based Lumia smartphones.