Microsoft announces over 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices sold
After all the fanfare and discussion leading up to an unprecedented global launch, with several devices available from multiple carriers and rumors of a massive marketing budget, the post-launch Windows Phone 7 landscape has felt somewhat quiet as the new mobile OS and its entourage of smartphones are finally competing head-to-head against the entrenched incumbents of iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Symbian. With little indication of how WP7 has fared so far, I'm sure many of us have been left wondering how the launch actually went and whether Microsoft's contender was making inroads.
The company has finally broken its silence today with the announcement that it and its manufacturing partners have sold over 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices to retailers and carriers in the first six weeks since launch. Unfortunately, figures for sales to consumers were unavailable, not giving us a complete picture. Microsoft's VP of Business and Marketing for Windows Phones, Achim Berg, spoke of how sales were ramping well and in line with the company's expectations, proclaiming it was pleased with what it considers to be a good start, and only the beginning. Berg also emphasized that success would be measured in the long-term with lots of planned improvements and updates in the pipeline, not to mention more new devices.
On balance based on this information, it seems like WP7 has made a fairly solid start, which is definitely not bad for an all-new mobile OS starting from scratch. But in comparison to the current leaders, it is still a long way behind, with the iPhone 4 selling 14 million units in the same six-week period and reports of over 200,000 Android device activations per day for comparison. Microsoft needs to try and build on this and increase the awareness and momentum behind its platform to try and grab a greater slice of the mindshare to start increasing sales.
[Pocket-lint]
