The latest numbers from Kantar's Worldpanel survey are in, and they show more gains for Windows Phone. Looking at sales in Europe for the first three weeks in January are now at 6.2% in the UK (up from 3.8% for the same period last year), and 15% (up from 4.5%) in Italy.

Windows Phone handsets appear to be grabbing former Android users, as well as Symbian users (the vast majority of the latter would have been using a Nokia smartphone). That's good news for the platform - while there is a lot of talk about capturing new users with smartphone platforms, taking disgruntled

Of course that's a two way street for Microsoft's mobile platform, and as the two year contract anniversary comes around for many of the first wave of Windows Phone users it will be interesting to see how many stick with the platform for another go around.

Kantar's Dominic Sunnebo:

“Understanding the source of growth for the Windows platform is crucial to devise and implement the right marketing and sales strategy. The fact that nearly one in five new customers switched from an Android device should give Microsoft, and its partners, confidence that its OS has what it takes to bring the fight to more established platforms. As almost 30% of its customers switch from rival OS’s, the worry that Microsoft will have to rely on attracting the dwindling pool of first time smartphone buyers to drive future growth is reduced.”

We'll watch out for global market share numbers and see if Windows Phone has performed outside of Europe. More details on the report can be found at Kantar's website.