nokialumia620Maybe there’s some truth to the hilarious and equally ridiculous ad Microsoft put out today, which attempts to differentiate Windows Phone from Apple and Samsung by poking fun at stereotypical users of the leading smartphones.

The first quarter numbers from Kantar show Windows making consistent gains in the U.S. smartphone market, as evidenced by growth of 1.9 percentage points from the same time last year. Despite only grabbing 5.6 percent of the overall smartphone market — Android had 49.3 percent; iOS with 43.7 percent — Windows continues to grow while Android and iOS are leveling off.

Kantar Worldpanel ComTech analyst Mary-Ann Parlato said that Microsoft is doing a good job of selling to people purchasing a smartphone for the first time:

“Windows strength appears to be the ability to attract first time smartphone buyers, upgrading from a featurephone. Of those who changed their phone over the last year to a Windows smartphone, 52% had previously owned a featurephone. Comparatively, the majority of iOS and Android new customers were repeat smartphone buyers, with 55% of new iOS customers, and 51% of new Android customers coming from another smartphone. While the differences between these figures are small, with over half of the US market still owning a featurephone, it’s likely that many will upgrade over the coming year, which will ultimately contribute to more growth for the Windows brand.”

In terms of carriers, Verizon again led with 37.2 percent of smartphones sold during Q1, while AT&T remained in second place at 27.9 percent. Sprint finished in third place with 12.3 percent and jumped T-Mobile, which was the only carrier to decline, despite its shift away from wireless contracts.

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Previously on GeekWire: Report: Lumia 920 rises to top of Windows Phone market

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