Report: Nokia Lumia Accounted For Only 0.17 Percent Of UK Sales In November

Some pretty damning early statistics out today for Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and the Lumia 800: according to a new survey, in the month of November, the device accounted for only 0.17 percent of smartphone sales in the UK, and looks set to only double that market share this month.

The survey, from the mobile comparison shopping site MobilesPlease, is based on 5,377 UK mobile phones sold across major UK retailers and networks in November 2011. It only records devices sold online, not in physical stores—figures that the company says were not yet available. The Lumia 800 was debuted during the Nokia World conference in London in October and began to ship soon after.

SEE ALSO: Windows Phone 7: 1.5 Million Devices Sold, But Not To Consumers

If MobilePlease’s figures are accurate, it would paint an even more bleak picture than the buyer sentiment survey results recently released by Exane BNP Paribas (via Reuters), which found that only two percent of respondents were interested in buying Nokia’s first Windows Phone.

Up to now, there have been conflicting reports on sales of the Lumia 800, with Nokia and at least one operator claiming record sales for the device. This report from MobilesPlease is one of the first trying to put some actual numbers to those reports.

Nokia has intentionally reigned in the early release of the Lumia 800, giving it a big marketing push but selling it only in selected countries and for now totally cutting out the U.S.—although there are signs that it may be making its way there soon, as it has appeared at the FCC for inspection.

In the meantime, it has also been streamlining its legacy smartphone activities: this month it quietly started using Nokia in place of Symbian when referring to its older mobile platform, with the latest iteration of that OS now being called “Nokia Belle.”

For what it’s worth, the Lumia 800 has had relatively positive reception from critics and is just the first of what looks like a long line of devices, but the rest of the mobilesplease survey does lay out what the competitive challenge will be for Nokia and Microsoft:

The MobilesPlease survey noted that the best-selling smartphone in the UK in the month of November was the Samsung Galaxy S II, which accounted for over 16 percent of all smartphone sales—or nearly 100 times more units than the Lumia 800.

Interestingly, the iPhone 4 is still outselling the iPhone 4S, although as you can see from the table below, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) collectively accounts for more of the devices than any other single brand. There are no Windows Phone-based devices on the list of top-sellers, which again could be an opportunity for Nokia to differentiate itself (despite others making devices on the OS), or a sign of consumers just not catching on to the OS just yet.

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