Nine per cent of folk thinking of getting a new phone in the next six months say they’re likely to go for a Windows Phone 8 device.

So suggests research data from ChangeWave, a US pollster, after asking 4300-odd North Americans and assorted other peoples in September about their near-term smartphone purchasing plans.

If you’ve been keeping an eye on Windows Phone demand for some time, you’ll know its market share is typically around the two per cent mark. Which, not coincidentally, is the proportion of pro-Windows Phone survey respondents who ticked the ‘very likely’ box.

The remaining seven per cent only went as far as to say they are ‘somewhat likely’ to go for a handset running the new Microsoft OS. That shows that Redmond has its core audience, but that it has the potential to triple its - albeit small - market share.

The interest, then, is there - can Microsoft and its hardware partners turn that interest into real sales? If they do, it will favour Samsung more than any other vendor.

Just over half - 55 per cent - of people considering getting a Windows Phone device said they already know which hardware brand they’ll choose, and of them half - 51 per cent - said they would go for a Samsung.

Nokia was the brand favoured by 35 per cent, HTC by seven per cent and other brands combined by six per cent. With 45 per cent of punters unsure which brand they’ll go for - if the do indeed pick a Windows Phone handset after all - there’s plenty for Nokia to play for, but it’ll be a point of concern for the Finnish phone giant that, for all it talks about being Microsoft’s main Windows Phone partner, it’s not punters’ number one choice.

The first Windows Phone 8 devices - among them Nokia’s Lumia 820 and 920, and Samsung’s Activ S - are expected to debut later this month. Windows Phone 8 itself is released on 29 October. ®