Microsoft Shipped 2 Million Windows Phone 7 Handsets Last Quarter

Business Insider ^ | 01/26/2011 | Jay Yarrow

[SeekAndFind]

Microsoft isn't ready to disclose how many Windows Phone 7 handsets are in the hands of customers, but it's happy to talk about how many it has shipped.

Greg Sullivan, a senior product manager at Microsoft, says Microsoft shipped 2 million Windows Phone 7s last quarter, in an interview with Ina Fried at All Things D.

Last we heard from Microsoft it had shipped 1.5 million in the first six weeks Windows Phone 7 was on the market, which suggests it shipped 500,000 handsets to close the quarter.

[SeekAndFind]

I wonder how many Androids were shipped when it first came out...

[Hodar]

The question is NEVER how many were shipped.

The question is how many were purchased? Remember the Kin One and the Kin Two? A bunch of them were shipped, then marked down, then given away, then dropped and the phones they couldn’t sell or give away were shipped back to MSFT.

Personally, I think MSFT is too late to the party. They are at LEAST a year behind the competition in shipping, and more than a year behind the competition in features.

[Yet_Again]

45.5 million people in the United States owned smartphones in 2010. Android account for 43% of the units sold in Q3 of 2009.

Even if every Windows phone shipped was sold and not held in inventory (unlikely - Microsoft probably gave cell dealers some sort of break to make the size of this first shipment look good) that would still account for only a tiny fraction of the installed userbase of smartphones. Overshadowing Microsoft’s effort is the release of the iPhone on Verizon and the entrenched Android market.

[Above My Pay Grade]

I haven’t seen anyone with a WP7 phone yet.

I agree that MSFT was late, but even worse they came in late with a mediocre product, and one of the worst marketing campaigns I can recall.

“Windows Phone...the smartphone you won’t use that much (or drop in the urinal).”

If WP7 offers anything that IOS or Android phones don’t, Microsoft’s ad agency has done a great job of keeping it a secret.

[PIF]

Overshadowing Microsoft’s effort is the release of the iPhone on Verizon and the entrenched Android market.

—

Not mention the impending release of the iPhone 5 later this year.

[Hodar]

To their credit, they are laying the groundwork for what could be quite revolutionary. One of the concepts that MSFT is working on is OnLive. Theoretically, imagine playing Halo against your neighbor, from your phone. He wouldn't know if you had your XBox360 fired up, or your Windows phone.

This is still in the early prototype stages, but this is where games are going to eventually wind up.

[edh]

“This is still in the early prototype stages, but this is where games are going to eventually wind up.”

Sony seems to be heading this route with the rumored “Playstation Phone” .

I wonder if Nintendo is working on something similar. I recall hearing some rumors around the iPhone release that Nintendo and Apple were going to team up ... but that’s all it was ... rumors. Nintendo seems pretty happy with its current handheld game sales. The 3DS will probably sell like gangbusters too.

[Leo Farnsworth]

I, reluctantly, have an android phone. It works, but at a cost.

When I download an ‘app’ I must agree to the terms and how the Google Android Market will (or will not) monitor me.

The good apps just require storage space and, perhaps, a network connection.

Many ask to know my location and monitor my phone numbers.

This I take on a per case basis.

Last month, at least I think it was last month (might have been November) two Google apps I had pushed to me a new TOS: They wanted to monitor my voice data.

I declined the new TOS and removed the programs.

I'm NOT a fan of Apple - far too many applesauce freaks in the world, at least for me. It's really impossible to reason with their zealotry.

I live in an area where the iPhone is unavailable, but it IS coming to my carrier - Alltel - late next month.

I greatly miss my Windows 6.5 phone and look forward to a Windows 7 phone in the near future. I'm certain they will not want to monitor my calls and words in those calls.

My 1/50 of a dollar to you.

Applesauce fans: it means ‘two cents.’

[Raymann]

The BEST thing MS can do is purchase OnLive. I’ve tried it and it’s freakin amazing although a big laggy (granted I tried it over wifi and they said beforehand the bugs were not completely out of wifi).

BTW: I am getting a Windows phone as soon as my contract ends next month and I can switch carriers.

[vrwc1]

You guys will really like your Windows Phone 7 when you get one. I have an HTC Surround and absolutely love it. I like it more than the iPhone 3G that I gave up due to slowness caused by Apple firmware updates.

[Vince Ferrer]

There is still a killer app for Microsoft, (and Apple) against Google. They need to come out with a phone like the Motorola ATRIX 4G, which is oddly enough an Android phone, but do it better. What this phone does is have a docking station that you can plug into when you get home or to an office, and the phone will display on a regular computer display and have a regular keyboard, and act like a regular pc. Then you can undock it and use it as a mobile phone. Its desktop apps are however limited. However, both Microsoft and Apple have the ability to completely merge their desktop and phone worlds along with millions of applications already written for their desktops. You can take your office computer home with you wherever you go.

While I think this will be inevitable, the downside is that it completes the first big trend of the 21st century. Not that we have flying cars, but that we will never be able to leave work.