With the introduction of Lumia 900, Nokia has set the stage to regain some of its lost smartphone market share and to re-establish Microsoft's Windows Phone as a leading contender in the mobile phone OS business, according to a report from information and analysis provider IHS. Largely based on Nokia's strong support, Windows Phone is set to regain the No. 2 rank in the smartphone operating system in 2015. Nokia in 2009 lost its second-place worldwide ranking because of rising competition from Google's Android and Apple's iOS. In 2015, however, Windows Phone will account for 16.7 percent of the smartphones shipped, up from less than 2 percent in 2011. This will allow Windows Phone to slightly surpass Apple's iOS to retake the market's second rank behind Android. Meanwhile, Nokia stands to stem its plunge in smartphone market share. Once the perennial leader in global smartphone shipments, Nokia had fallen to the third rank in the market behind Samsung and Apple by the second quarter of 2011. The Lumia 900's flashy feature set, along with Nokia's strategy for selling the product, shows that the company is targeting the North American region, a market that, even in the height of Nokia's dominance, historically had been an Achilles' heel for the company. Although Nokia is not the only seller of Windows Phone smartphones, the company is expected to dominate the market, accounting for 50 percent of all Microsoft OS-based handsets sold in 2012, IHS iSuppli predicts. The company's share then is set to rise to 62 percent in 2013. Nokia's portion of the market will begin to decline in 2014, as other companies increase their sales of Windows Phone products.
