Windows Phone 8 four times more popular than Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 8’s sales figures might not be putting a dent in Android and iPhone sales just yet but the platform is already proving much more popular than its predecessor, according to new usage figures.

The figures in questions are Facebook usage statistics, showing that since the launch of Windows Phone 8 in October 2012 as many as 657,000 users per month have accessed Facebook via the Windows Phone 8 app.

Meanwhile, less than 150,000 users per month have accessed Facebook on the Windows Phone 7 app during the same period in 2011.

The news comes via WMPoweruser which estimates that this could mean Windows Phone 8 handset sales of around 7 million for the quarter, based on 2011’s 2.759 million sales for the same period with the lower Facebook figures.

However, it should be stressed that this is still highly speculative, to highlight that point, TheNextWeb also published the figures but based on its own analysis has predicted a more conservative 4.2 million.

Either way, the important thing is that sales are growing with Microsoft's new iteration of the Windows Phone operating system.

Assuming the Facebook figures do reflect on comparative sales with Windows Phone 7, this would certainly sit well with Steve Ballmer’s comment on a recent investor call at the end of November, where he said: ‘Windows Phones are so far selling at four times the rate of the same time last year.’