In this month's look at Windows Phone handset usage, we see an important milestone being crossed, a big push by this year's low-end devices, and—finally!—news of new Microsoft Lumia handsets, including a few that might be marketed as flagship devices.
As you may remember, AdDuplex bills itself as the largest cross-promotion network for Windows Phone and Windows 8 apps, empowering developers and publishers to promote their apps for free by helping each other. And each month it provides a tantalizing glimpse at which Windows Phone (and Windows) devices people are actually using.
Here's what's happening with Windows Phone usage this month.
Lumia 630/635 continue upward. The Lumia 520 is still in the number one spot with 26.3 percent usage (or 30.2 percent if you add in the 521, which is fair), but its 2014-era replacement, the Lumia 630/635 is doing quite well, with the 630 taking third place in usage, with 7.1 percent, up from 6.4 percent last month. Ad Duplex notes that the Lumia 630 and 635 are "the most popular" of Microsoft/Nokia's 2014 devices. And sure enough, in the US, the 630 and 635 combine for 18.1 percent of the market, good for second place behind the 520/521 with 34 percent of the market.
Windows Phone 8.1 takes over. This month, Windows Phone 8.1 represents over 50 percent of total usage—50.8 percent to be exact—meaning that Microsoft's new OS version is now in use on more handsets than Windows Phone 8.0 (33.5 percent) and Windows Phone 7.x (15.7 percent) combined.
Nokia is unchanged. As with last month, Nokia handsets account for 94.99 percent of Windows Phone usage, so perhaps it has finally plateaued and will start heading downward as rival phones expand. The rest of the top four has tiny share: HTC (3.11 percent), Samsung (1.14 percent) and Huawei (.62 percent). And "other" represents just 0.14 percent.
AT&T continues to be the biggest wireless carrier in the US with 29.7 percent usage share, compared to 19.3 percent for T-Mobile, 18.5 percent for Cricket, 16.4 percent for Verizon, 6.9 percent for MetroPCS and 3.5 percent for Family Mobile.
Many new Microsoft Lumia handsets are on the way. Here's the big news this month, given the disappointment over a lack of new Lumia flagships in the second half of 2014: Ad Duplex has spotted several new Microsoft/Nokia Lumia handsets in testing, and some could be marketed as flagship-class devices. The RM-1062, RM-1063, RM-1064 and RM-1065 all report themselves as 5.7-inch phablet devices with 720p screens (so likely a 1320 replacement, not a 1520 replacement). The RM-1072 and RM-1075 report as 5-inch devices with 720p screens. And then there are many low-end phones, too. The RM-1078 is a 480 x 854 device heading to Sprint in the United States. And the RM-1069, RM-1070 and RM 1071 are 480 x 800 devices with 4-inch screens that are aimed at Asia.
