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.
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.
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.’
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.