Windows Phone posted the largest year-over-year gain in market share among the leading mobile operating systems, more than doubling its size from a year ago, according to numbers released today from International Data Corporation (IDC). 

According to IDC, Windows Phone accounted for 3.2 percent of global smarpthone shipments in the first quarter. Android took the top spot with 75 percent, followed by Apple’s iOS with 17. percent of the total market. BlackBerry was nudged to fourth in the ranking, taking 2.9 percent of the market. That’s down in the same quarter last year. 

According to the report Nokia was largely responsible for driving the higher volumes of Windows Phone shipments, accounting for 79.0 percent of all Windows Phone shipments during the quarter. Since Nokia began shipping Windows Phone devices, the company has shipped a total of 20.3 million units and grown the footprint worldwide to include address multiple market segments. 

Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, said that Windows Phone claiming the third spot is a first and helps validate the direction taken by Microsoft and Nokia. 

“Given the relatively low volume generated, the Windows Phone camp will need to show further gains to solidify its status as an alterative to Android or iOS,” Restivo said in a report. 

Windows and BlackBerry still have an uphill climb. According to IDC, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during the first quarter, up 59.1 percent from the 125.4 million units shipped during the first quarter of 2012.