Despite accounting for just 5.6% of smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2013, Kantar finds, Windows showed continued growth, gaining 1.9% compared to the same period last year.

With nearly half (49.3%) of smartphone sales, Android remains the top selling operating system, but saw only slight growth compared to the same period last year, and is down versus the 3 months ending February 2013 (-1.9%). iOS remains in second place with 43.7% of smartphone sales, down throughout Q1 2013.

“As iOS and Android continue to battle it out for top selling smartphone OS, we have seen Windows steadily grow over the past year and is now at its highest sales share figure so far,” says Kantar Worldpanel ComTech analyst Mary-Ann Parlato.

“Windows strength appears to be the ability to attract first time smartphone buyers, upgrading from a featurephone. Of those who changed their phone over the last year to a Windows smartphone, 52% had previously owned a featurephone,” Parlato adds. “Comparatively, the majority of iOS and Android new customers were repeat smartphone buyers, with 55% of new iOS customers, and 51% of new Android customers coming from another smartphone. While the differences between these figures are small, with over half of the US market still owning a featurephone, it’s likely that many will upgrade over the coming year, which will ultimately contribute to more growth for the Windows brand.”

To learn more, check out the report here.

The post Windows Making Surprising Smartphone Gains on iOS, Android appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

A freshly touted new version of the Wine compatibility layer that allows Windows software to run on Unix-like operating systems was demoed running on Android.

Wine, if you’re not familiar, stands for “Wine Is Not an Emulator.”

Nick Heath of ZDNet says the demo “showed Wine running on an emulated Android environment.”

Phoronix reports the performance of Wine on Android to be “horrendously slow” but says these problems were attributed to it running on an emulated environment rather than a native Android OS.

As of this writing, there’s no formal news as to when the masses may gain access to the Wine release, but the prospect is an intriguing one that continues to generate substantial talk and headlines today.

To read more from Mr. Heath’s report, click here.

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As a result, Google is pushing the cutoff date to late summer in a move that will allow mobile users to continue accessing all the bells and whistles of Gmail messaging services on their Windows-powered smartphones.

“We’re happy to share today that Google will extend their support for new Windows Phone connections via Google Sync until July 31, 2013,” a post on the Windows Phone Blog reads.

At the same time, the Windows Phone team is building support into our software for the new sync protocols Google is using for calendar and contacts—CalDAV and CardDAV. These new protocols, combined with our existing support for the IMAP protocol for email, will enable Windows Phone users to continue to connect to Google services after July 31, 2013.

To read the full post on the Windows Phone Blog and for more information regarding these developments, click here.

The post Google Confirms Extension of Exchange ActiveSync Support for Windows Phone appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The optional update adds two new Windows Phone 7.8 emulator images to your existing SDK installation.

“These two emulator images,” writes Cliff Simpkins on the Windows Phone Developer Blog, “should enable you to fully test how your Windows Phone 7.5 app’s Live Tiles will look and behave when they are run on a device running Windows Phone 7.8.”

According to the announcement, the Windows Phone SDK update delivers the following capabilities:

• Windows Phone 7.8 emulator: This OS image emulates your app running on a 512-MB device running Windows Phone 7.8 (build 8858)
• Windows Phone 7.8 256MB emulator: This OS image emulates Windows Phone 7.8 (build 8858) running on a 256-MB device
• If you’re running a Windows Phone SDK 7.1 installation, the update will also download and install the Windows Phone SDK 7.1.1 update onto your machine as part of the update (again, only applicable to Windows Phone SDK 7.1 installations)

“New phones with Windows Phone 7.8 are beginning to ship,” explains Simpkins, “so it’s a great time to update your apps to take advantage of the new Live Tile experience and to reach the new markets that Windows Phone 7.8 makes available.”

To read the full blog post from Windows, click here.

The post Microsoft Releases Update for Windows Phone 7.8 SDK appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

“When Hurricane Sandy mowed over the East Coast last year and the first devastating images appeared,” Stroh remembers, “two thoughts crossed my mind: Are the people I know there OK? and How can I help? I know I wasn’t alone.”

In response to the growing need for improved communication with friends and loves ones in times of emergency, Microsoft is unveiling an innovative new app called HelpBridge that makes it easier to address both of these concerns.

The app, which is free and available only in the U.S., lets you assemble a list of friends and family members who you’d want to notify in an emergency or natural disaster.

On your command, Stroh explains, HelpBridge will then quickly blast out email or text alerts (or post an emergency message on your Facebook wall) to let people know you’re safe or require aid.

Alerts can also optionally provide your precise location via your phone’s GPS signal.

Corresponding with the blog heralding the launch of the new app, Microsoft released this video to illustrate exactly how the new app works. Check it out below.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPYVHmW5GX8&list=UUKxeTee0H8k8M4VQ0xC1HCQ&index=1[/youtube]

The post Video: Microsoft Says New App is Critical in Emergencies appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

While the source can’t confirm the inclusion of Near Field Communications technology on the refreshed handset, he does assert that published reports this week about the iPhone 5S delivering a finger sensor behind the home button are largely “in the ballpark” of being correct.

Rumors have swirled for months that Apple would bolster its mobile security attributes on the iPhone in response to the company’s high-profile acquisition of AuthenTec. If the iPhone 5S delivers the purported finger sensor behind the home button, it would be a “groundbreaking” achievement for contemporary smartphone security and one that Android and Windows devices will be forced to play catch-up with in short order

Although the source believes that the iPhone 5S may not enter production as early as March (which is the latest industry-wide rumor), he alleges that the next generation iPhone will all but certainly be released well in advance of summer.

The post Source Tells MMW that Mobile Security is Apple’s ‘Highest Priority’ with iPhone 5S appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Although Windows 8 hasn’t exactly become the biggest hit with consumers yet, The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is already signing up 75 percent of all DoD personnel.

From the official announcement:

In an effort to modernize technology infrastructure, reduce costs and foster new levels of cross-agency collaboration, the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) are expanding access to Microsoft solutions by entering into a transformative three-year Joint Enterprise Licensing Agreement for enterprise licenses and software assurance.

Although the DoD already has a relationship with Microsoft, the decision to embrace Windows runs counter to the recently established trend of government agencies flocking to Apple’s iOS platform.

“There’s a move afoot throughout the department to bring about efficiencies in the [information technology] world,” David L. DeVries, DoD deputy chief information officer, said Friday. “We took a long, hard look at it … realizing that the Department of Defense relies upon the network and upon information technology to do its business.”

Not surprisingly, Microsoft is both thrilled and honored to secure the deal.

“Microsoft has longstanding relationships with the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force and DISA, and we are honored to expand our support of ongoing technology modernization efforts across all three organizations,” Tim Solms, general manager of Microsoft Department of Defense Business, says.

The post U.S. Department of Defense Secures Deal with Microsoft appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

comScore indicated in its latest published data from the comScore MobiLens service that Apple claimed 35 percent of the U.S. smartphone market in Nov. 2012, the most recent month for which this data is available.

Though still lagging behind industry leader Android’s commanding top market share, iOS gained traction against rivals BlackBerry and Windows Phone.

comScore found that Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with a 53.7 percent market share. Apple’s market share is just north of 35 percent. RIM ranked third with a 7.3 percent share. Microsoft (3 percent) and Symbian (0.5 percent) rounded out the top five.

123.3 million people owned smartphones in the United States during the three months ending in November, which is 6% higher than than the smartphone user base recorded in August.

To review more data from the new comScore report, please click here.

The post iOS Secures 35% of U.S. Smartphone Market appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority is going mobile with a new iOS app that allows riders of seven train lines to plan their trips in a more detailed fashion than ever imaginable before.

Hailed as a “first for the largest subway system in the U.S.,” the MTA Subway Time app uses train location data to give app users highly specific and up-to-the-minute arrival times details for seven of the system’s 24 subway lines.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the seven lines use “updated signals yoked to centralized computers able to transmit location and speed data for every train in motion.”

It’s the minimum needed to make a live app work, but it hasn’t come cheap. The new signals were installed at a cost of more than $228 million over 11 years, the MTA said.

The MTA says that Android and Windows Phone versions of the app are being planned and will roll out in the near future.

The post Mobile Goes Underground for MTA Commuters in the Big Apple appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

On Wednesday, Todd Brix, Microsoft’s Senior Director for Windows Marketplace, publicly reflected on his company’s progress in mobile during the past year. And developer enthusiasm was corroborated with some pretty impressive data.

“Over the last year,” Brix admitted, “we’ve certified and published over 75,000 new apps and games (more than doubling the catalog size) and over 300,000 app updates. In addition, this year we added the capability for customers to tell us if they have a concern about an app.”

As a direct result of our investments, Windows Phone customers now download, buy, and use more apps than at any time since we first launched Windows Phone 7 two years ago.

The typical or average Windows Phone user downloaded 54 apps to personalize their phone experience in 2012.

While Microsoft still has a way to go before it can lay clam to disrupting the smartphone duopoly enjoyed by Android and iOS, the software giant and burgeoning mobile maven has undeniable momentum going into the new year.

The post Microsoft Enjoyed Banner Year for Windows Phone Apps appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.