According to research from Strategy Analytics, Nokia has become the largest vendor of Microsoft smartphones. Nokia has taken this position for the first time, mostly at the expense of HTC’s Windows Phone 7 market share. The report also says that shipments of Windows Phone 7 devices grew by 36% from Q3 2011 to Q4 2011. In the same period, Nokia’s share of those sales shot from zero to 33.1%.

Strategy Analytics warns that Nokia is by no means “out of the woods”, but its growth is an encouraging “baby step”, which it attributes to,

“An expanded portfolio of Windows Phone 7 models such as the Lumia 800, an increased retail presence and highly visible marketing campaigns across several European and Asian countries [that] drove Nokia’s growth.”

Tom Kang, Direct at Strategy Analytics, also commented that Nokia has taken its market share from HTC which is facing difficulty in both the Windows Phone 7 and Android markets,

“Nokia’s Microsoft smartphone growth during the quarter was achieved partly by capturing market share from HTC. This is a challenging development for HTC because it is also losing ground to Samsung in the Android segment. HTC is now at risk of being caught in a pincer movement between two giants of Samsung in Android and Nokia in Microsoft, and HTC must move with urgency to address the problem.”