Windows Phone saw a nice bump in sales, relatively speaking, for the month of July. Looking at the latest statistics from StatCounter, Windows Phone blogging site WMPoweruser noticed a 23.5% increase in European market for July. While that may sound like a large amount, a 23.5% increase from a small number still yields a small number: 1.68% of the market.

1.68% of the market is still a tiny number. It places it far behind iOS and Android, and even behind Nokia's Symbian. The upturn, no matter how small, is something that Microsoft would like to see. It also shows that Nokia's Lumia line of phones are starting to grow in popularity. This bump likely was aided by the European launch of the Lumia 610 and 900.

From the month of June to July, Windows Phone managed a market share increase of 66% in Italy, 29% in France, 27% in Germany, and 18% in the U.K. US growth was at a solid 18.6%. Windows Phone still has a long way to go to be a true competitor to iOS and Android. Nokia and Microsoft are working together to boost sales and Windows Phone 8 is likely to aid this bid.