Congratulations Nokia, You’re the World’s Largest Windows Phone Seller — Not That That’s Saying Much …

Tiny though they were, Nokia’s shipments of Windows Phone 7 handsets were enough to make the company the world’s largest vendor of smartphones powered by the Microsoft OS.

Of the 2.7 million Windows Phone devices sold during the fourth quarter of 2011, Nokia accounted for 900,000, according to research from Strategy Analytics. That’s a little more than 33 percent — more than enough to claim the top spot in the market.

That said, there really isn’t much of a market yet. Sales of 2.7 million Windows Phones is a paucity compared to the 37 million iPhones Apple sold during the fourth quarter.

But it’s a start, and evidence that Nokia’s expanded portfolio of Windows Phone 7 handsets, and the marketing push behind them, is working.

“Nokia is by no means out of the woods yet, and it is still on a long road to recovery,” said Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics. “But capturing the top spot in the Microsoft smartphone ecosystem is an encouraging baby step forward for the company.”