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We're not sure if this is a good sign for Microsoft or a bad sign for BlackBerry, but Windows Phone is now the third largest smartphone operating system, according to IDC. Since we're optimists, we'll say it's a good sign for Microsoft. It's trying to catch up to Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems. It has a very long way to go before it catches either of them, but it had to start somewhere. Perhaps this is the start of the most unlikely come-from-behind victory in history. Here's the IDC numbers, via All Things D:

If you like what you've seen so far from RIM BlackBerry's big launch event today, then you might want to know when you can get it? Those in the US might have hoped the rumors weren't true, but indeed, you will have to wait until March before you can get your hands on BlackBerry 10. Though when it does land, customers of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint (only Q10 confirmed) and T-Mobile (Z10 confirmed) will all be able to get onboard. BlackBerry's giving its home turf a little bit of a head start with a February 5th release date and Bell,...

The early returns/opinions are in on the Nokia Lumia 920—expected to reach retailers in November—and they declare the new flagship smartphone for Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 operating system a winner. From its high-quality construction to its dazzling display, the Nokia 920, introduced Wednesday, garners kudos across the Net. "It's incredibly handsome," gushed David Pierce at The Verge. "The new Nokia Lumia 920 mobile phone is the best the company has ever made," added Matt Warman, consumer technology editor at The Telegraph, based in the United Kingdom. The 920's construction earned some praise from Andrew Wooden at T3. "Nokia’s R&D department...

Windows Phone could pull ahead of the beleaguered BlackBerry platform in mobile Web usage this fall to take a distant third place behind Android and iOS. It's a dubious distinction, but it also could be the momentum-builder Microsoft needs. In the spirit of the recent Olympics, Windows Phone is in a race of its own to become a bronze winner in the smartphone dash behind Android and iOS. All it needs to do is pass the wounded soldier known as RIM (Research In Motion). New mobile Web usage data from Web traffic analysis site StatCounter indicates this will happen soon....

Analyst reports released in the last two days show Windows Phone sales surging between 115% and 227% compared to a year ago. Does this mean Windows Phone is finally gaining traction, or is it just a blip on the radar? IDC reports that in the second quarter of this year, Windows Phone sales jumped by 115% compared to a year ago, to 5.4 million units, and a 3.5% market share. IDC also notes that Windows Phone "narrowed the gap between itself and BlackBerry last quarter in its bid to become the number 3 mobile OS in terms of market share."...

Microsoft's consolation prize to anyone who owns a current Windows Phone is a new homescreen landing in an update known as Windows Phone 7.8, pictured above running on the Nokia Lumia 900. It's best described as a sweetener to coat the bitter truth that anyone who's shelled out for a Windows Phone in the last 20 months isn't getting the big upgrade to Windows Phone 8. Bitter because Microsoft knew this schism was coming all along but kept Windows Phone buyers in the dark. Instead of iterating the Windows Phone software, Windows Phone 8 is a clean break with Windows...

Microsoft revealed many new details of Windows Phone 8, its smartphone platform due later this year. Here are the cool new features that will make developers and users happy. First of two parts THE GOOD Microsoft on Wednesday revealed key pieces of its Windows Phone 8 smartphone strategy at an event for developers in San Francisco. The news is mostly good, and should vastly improve the scale and reach of the Windows Phone ecosystem when the platform launches later this year. Looking at all the pieces of its mobile strategy offered by Microsoft, it's easy to foresee a brighter future...

Apple's World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) kicked off today with the unveiling of iOS 6 for the iPhone and iPad. Apple is promising over 200 new features in the latest version of its mobile operating system, but only a few of them were highlighted in the keynote. June is an exciting month for smartphone fanatics as Microsoft is expected to unveil the next generation of Windows Phone at an event next Wednesday, June 20 while Google is expected to reveal its plans for the next version of Android, codenamed "Jellybean." While some of the features Apple announced today already exist...

Windows Phone will swing past iOS in the smartphone market share by 2016 to become the second-most-used mobile operating system, a telecom analytics firm predicts. The report by the International Data Corp. says Windows Phone growth will begin picking up, despite a slow start, as a result of Nokia's strength in emerging markets. That growth should bring Windows Phone 19.2% of the market by 2016, which would place it above Apple's iOS, which IDC expects will suffer a slight drop in market share and land at 19%. “Growth will moderate over the five-year forecast, given the large installed base Apple...

Microsoft’s Windows Phones are outselling iPhones in the Chinese and Russian markets. Though Windows Phone was only launched in China 2 months ago it has surged to 7 per cent market share compared to 6 per cent for iOS. Android is still top dog in China with 69 per cent of the market. Meanwhile in Russia figures from their largest mobile operator MTS have been released that paint a similar picture to the Chinese results. In the Russian results Windows Phone accounted for 8.2 per cent of sales compared to 7.3 per cent for iOS devices. The leading sales for...

This is really rather amusing. Until just recently if you asked Siri, the voice assistant on the latest of Apple‘s iPhones, which was the best cell phone ever the reply would be that it was the Nokia Lumia. Which is, as all know, a Windows based phone. The proof is here with a screen shot. The reason why it gave this unexpected answer (well, unexpected to me, it might actually be that the Lumia is the best cell phone ever) is that Siri interrogates the Wolfram Alpha database to answer such questions. And if there are four reviews (as there...

Bloggers got in a fair amount of digs at Nokia for launching the Lumia 900 flagship phone on Easter Sunday, when vast majority of AT&T stores were closed. Fair enough – the decision was odd. But on Monday eve, the day after the Lumia 900 launch, the traction this phone has at Amazon.com is certainly better than anticipated. Four points about Amazon’s Cell Phones with Service Plans sales chart. Lumia 900 sales are split between two color variants right out of the gate. The black version is #1, the blue one #2. This is unusual – phones tend to debut...

Nokia is seeing some good initial success from its transition to exclusively supporting Windows Phone for its high-end handsets. Initial sales of the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, Nokia’s first two Windows Phones, are likely hovering around 1.3 million units, according to Bloomberg. This is, of course, unverified data, but for two handsets that only launched in November, that’s not bad. Add in the fact that Windows Phone is not a well known or sought-after OS yet and the fact that Nokia only just launched its first device in the US a week or two ago, and the numbers are...

If you’re a first-time smartphone shopper or a current smartphone shopper approaching an upgrade, you may be curious about the mobile platforms that are available. Everyone knows about the iPhone and iPad, and everyone knows about “Droids� (Android is the platform, Droid is one specific brand on Verizon). Often overlooked is the newcomer, Windows Phone. How do the three mobile operating systems stack up?We broke down the three platforms into some of the most distinct categories so you can better understand the differences between them. Let’s take a look…Total Devices Before delving into the specifics of each operating system, one...

Good question. However, if you want an honest opinion, it's usually best to go straight to the source. A former GM who used to work on Windows Phone 7 for Microsoft, Charlie Kindel, took to his personal blog today with some thoughts on why Microsoft's mobile efforts seem so stagnant. It boils down to carriers, manufacturers, and the companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft who make the operating system are all locked in this big three-way pissing contest to see who gets the most say in marketing a device. According to Kindel, Android is crushing iOS and Windows Phone 7...

Nokia's Lumia 800 phone - the first fruit of its much-hyped alliance with Microsoft, seems to be unlikely to be the saviour the firm hoped for. When CEO Michael Elop took over, he described the firm's situation in smartphones as standing on a burning oil platform, with no choice but to hurl itself into the sea. The alliance with Microsoft came after Elop's gloomy prognosis. But from sales data released by Mobiles Please, it looks like Nokia has so far failed to make a splash. A sample of 5,000 sales by the price comparison site found that the Lumia 800...

Microsoft's obituary has been written plenty of times. There was no place for the software mammoth in a tech world designed -- and dominated -- by Apple. CEO Steve Ballmer was unable to steer the company to a position of growth, leaving Microsoft selling PC software in a post-PC world. So often has Microsoft been written off as irrelevant that investors have largely stopped believing in the stock, which has spent the bulk of the past ten years in a tight range between $25 a share and $30 a share. On Monday, the stock closed around $27, which is where...

Microsoft seems optimistic about Windows Phone's future chances. Is that optimism justified? According to a statement released be Microsoft, the Windows Phone mobile platform has the potential to increase its share of the smartphone market up to as much as 20% during the next two or three years through active support from its hardware manufacturers and its own increasing efforts in marketing. The head of Windows Phone marketing, Achim Berg, has said that the forecasts released by the research firms IDC and Gartner are conservative in expecting the company to have a 20% share of the market by the year...

Windows Phone is getting a giant update coming this fall called "Mango." We can't wait. Mango has some truly inspired features that integrate social networks into every aspect of the phone, as well as many others. We got our hands on the beta version of Mango a bit early, and we're going to prove that Windows Phone isn't dead. Windows Phone Mango is a stellar platform that integrates social features far better than Android or iPhone (even in iOS 5), but can't really succeed until developers get on board and build apps for it. Most importantly, Mango looks fresh and...

Microsoft just put the finishing touches on its new Windows Phone 7 operating system. To celebrate the birth of this new operating system, it threw a huge parade/funeral at its Redmond campus. The funeral included fake hearses for the iPhone and Blackberry, in addition to a number of crazy costumes. (Oddly, Android seems to have been spared.) Tom Warren at Neowin first spotted the photos of the parade. We've put in an email to Microsoft PR to see if this is for real*. CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE PICS

Microsoft (MSFT) showed off its upcoming Windows Phone OS at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain today, and showed the video teaser above onstage. Without ever mentioning the iPhone, it completely trashes it and all the other copycat touch phones that are following in its wake. The narrator laments the “Sea of Sameness” that smartphones have fallen into, with each new phone “‘just a slightly better version than the one before it.” Then it tries to undermine the iPhone’s greatest strength: the 150,000 apps on its platform. The video positions the problem as a “focus on apps over the...