iPhone Explodes In Holiday Sales As Nokia Struggles To Penetrate

Nokia's multi-million efforts to push its Windows Phone based Lumia 800 still hasn't resulted in strong holiday sales, according to the latest UK stats, with Apple's iPhone continuing to dominate the mobile market. Although the newest iPhone 4S was an unsurprising success, sales tracking firm GfK says, the aging iPhone 3GS still managed to make it into the top 15 handsets chart despite dating back to mid-2009. Android was also a winner, with Samsung's Galaxy S II a particular star.

In fact, Samsung's GSII took the number two spot in UK sales in the week to December 9. The Korean company has been running an advertising campaign sniping at Apple and Apple fans, something analysts have suggested has helped the company sneak ahead of its Cupertino rival in so-called buzz metrics.

Still, five of the top fifteen devices were versions of Apple's iPhone, with the Lumia 800 apparently failing to get into the top ten in either November or December, according to GfK. In fact, the analytics firm reckons, the new Windows Phone 7 handset was only narrowly more successful than Nokia's "Touch and Type" phones on sale at the same time.

That consumer apathy was also suggested in market research last week, with just over 2-percent of those surveyed expressing a strong interest in the new Lumia. Nokia's spokespeople say they have "only started our journey to regain smartphone leadership" but that they "are pleased with the early results." Although no official sales figures have been revealed, "the Lumia 800 is getting good traction in all six European markets where it has already launched" the company continued.

[via FT]