Windows Phone now outselling Symbian in the U.K.

As Microsoft continues to hope that its investment in the Windows Phone platform will eventually translate into greater market share, they have managed to cross one threshold – WP7 handsets outsold Symbian devices in the U.K. in the three month period ending in February. That’s according to a study published by Kantar Worldpanel today, examining cell phone market share across Europe.

We’re not talking about large numbers – WP7 handsets accounted for 2.5% of Great Britain’s mobile sales, while Symbian fell to 2.4% - but as a mobile operating system that just recently passed the old Windows Mobile install base we’re sure Microsoft will take whatever victories they can get.

Nokia is also a winner here, as the Lumia 800 apparently accounts for a whopping 87% of WP7 sales in Europe, which is consistent with our report that Nokia had quickly become the number one phone vendor. Germany appears to be the most receptive to the Microkia team, as 3.1% of phones sold in Deutschland were of the WP7 variety.

We’re not sure what this means for Windows Phone’s other OEMs; even 3.1% isn’t a very big slice of pie to divvy up, and with nearly 9 out of every 10 of those phones being made by Nokia, let’s just say we can see why some OEMs are waiting for the “right time” to make a bigger Windows Phone push.

The big question this quarter of course is whether the upcoming Lumia 900 launch on AT&T can duplicate that level of success on U.S. shores. As cool as the upcoming Windows Phone 8 update sounds, Microsoft and Nokia really can’t afford to wait another year to start seeing growth in the U.S. market. And as the year wears on, we'll have to see if Windows phone can accelerate its growth in Europe to achieve the 12% market share some were predicting last year.

source: Kantar Worldpanel via SlashGear