I’m always trying to get a realistic handle on the uptake of Windows Phone, there have been poor reports on it’s uptake, and if you go into any local carrier store here in Australia, you will most probably receive a lack lustre response from sales staff towards the platform. If they can describe it’s features at all. There’s a terrible deficit, in the way Microsoft and their carrier partners have marketed Windows Phone to date. A deficit I don’t see being addressed any time before the Mango update hits, supposedly in September this year. The fact is though, that Microsoft and the carriers have kept stats about the uptake of Windows Phone very close to their chests, and even though I could cite active user groups, we really have few realistic statistics to go by as to the popularity of the OS.
In news that was repeated today, the IDC, an international data compiler, again reiterated it’s prediction that by 2015, Window Phone will be a larger mobile player than iOS, in general terms more WinPho than iPho.
So while current user stats are sketchy, if you are interested, there are a couple of apps that may help all of us keep a keen eye on user stats if people would install, and use them occasionally. I highlighted one a while ago because of an anomaly it revealed, at least one user on a version of Windows Phone that defied the odds, using the app. I’m a WP7 is another simple stat compiler, and the more people that use it, the better the picture we get of overall Windows Phone use, worldwide.
It’s a free app, and it does a lot of interesting things, but it’s main intent, is to link WP7 users, show their general location, show you other WP users in your vicinity, and through your profile you can identify yourself as a developer. At the moment it shows, 11,918 users, 1,410 of those are developers. It offers worldwide and local stats, and messaging if enabled through your profile, to other users of the app. It calculates top devices [HTC HD7] user regions, of course the US wins for now, and let’s you search locally for other users. It even integrates Maps, to show you users near you.
More importantly, by installing this app to your Windows Phone, you can help to improve the knowledge of the WP user base, cause really what we all want to know is how popular, or whether the IDC prediction is actually reasonable. Try it for sure, if not because you want to crunch numbers, but just so you don’t have to feel alone as a Windows Phone user.
