Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Is Grabbing Market Share Here

Another worthy consideration is comparing Microsoft’s market share with last year’s Q1. During the same period in 2012, Windows 8 owned 3.7% of the stateside OS market. Yes, Microsoft’s OS share remains far behind the two leaders, but a 50% jump shouldn’t be discounted. If nothing else, the significant improvement in Microsoft’s piece of the OS pie demonstrates an extremely positive trend.

Finally, when feature phone users traded up to a smartphone this past quarter, turns out a lot of them chose Windows 8. According to Kantar’s data, 52% of users who bought a Windows phone did so after ditching their feature phone, fueling Microsoft’s year-over-year growth. By contrast, most iOS and Android buyers just swapped their smartphones. That’s significant, because unlike the global mobile phone market that saw Q1 smartphone sales outpace feature phones for the first time ever, domestically, there are still more old-school units. If the trend to upgrade from feature to smartphones continues, Microsoft should benefit.

It’s not difficult to find analyst and tech gurus bemoaning Windows 8. That’s the nature of the IT beast. But as Kantar’s data highlights, Microsoft’s new OS isn’t going away any time soon, and given a few more quarters like this one, will start making some real noise in the smartphone and mobile computing markets. On top of Microsoft’s recently announced fiscal Q3, this latest news should have long-term investors feeling awfully good.

The article Surprise! Microsoft’s Gaining Domestic Smartphone OS Market Share originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Tim Brugger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Apple and Google and owns shares of Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

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