The Windows Phone system, which is widely expected to challenge the dominate market positions of Apple's iOS and Google's Android systems, officially debuted on China's mainland yesterday.

Nokia Corp, HTC Corp and ZTE Corp as well as the system developer, Microsoft Corp, launched smartphones running on the Windows Phone system in Beijing.

There are 70,000 applications in the Windows Phone store, with 300 new apps added each day, according to Microsoft. But it's still fewer than 500,000 applications for Apple's iOS system.

The Windows Phone system may grab market shares from leaders such as iOS and Android platforms, industry insiders said.

By 2015, the market share of Windows Phone will surpass that of Apple's iOS, according to Gartner Inc, a US-based information technology consulting firm. The sales of Windows Phone devices are forecast at 216 million units, with a share of 19.5 percent in the smartphone market, compared with iOS' 17.2 percent and Android's 48.8 percent, Gartner said.

The Windows Phone's market share was 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter of last year after its overseas debut last year, according to Gartner.