Microsoft: 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices sold (Says sales meet 'realistic' expectations)

MSNBC ^ | 12/21/2010 | Edwin Chan

[SeekAndFind]

More than 1.5 million cell phones carrying Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating software have sold in the first six weeks of launch, meeting what the company called "realistic" expectations.

Achim Berg, vice president of business and marketing for Windows phones, released sales numbers for the nascent platform for the first time in an internally conducted interview posted on Microsoft's website. (Msnbc.com is an NBC Universal-Microsoft joint venture.)

Windows Phone 7 was unveiled in October and marked the software maker's expansion into a smart phone arena dominated by Apple and Google. Analysts say it could be Microsoft's last chance to establish a major presence in a hot market.

Taiwan's HTC, Dell Inc, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are among the vendors who have launched or plan to begin selling Phone 7-based devices.

"We all know that the competition is extreme in this industry, and we have to compete on multiple fronts," Berg said in the interview.

"We are on a path to begin releasing the first of several updates in the next couple of months, and several more mobile operators around the world will introduce Windows Phone 7 on their network in 2011."

[sionnsar]

My biggest issue was no tethering but if you have the LG or the Samsung there’s a diagnostic mode you can use to change the USB from Zune Sync to USB Tethering :-)

All ears. I've been busy ever since I was given the Samsung Galaxy/Vibrant, but tethering (which I have never done much) is the last issue remaining...

[for-q-clinton]

Either that link is old or wrong (or both). Try some of these for a better picture. By the way I’m a gamer and every gamer knows the 360 is kicking the PS3’s butt in the US and worldwide it is still in the lead (although sony was closing the gap, but with Kinect it looks like 360 will run away again).

http://news.cnet.com/2702-10797_3-992-1.html

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2010/12/playstation_move_vs_kinect_sal.html?hpid=news-col-blog

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010/12/09/microsoft-xbox-kinect-big-winner-november-npd/

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-video-game-sales-rise-8-apf-2830714176.html?x=0&.v=1

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/120910dnbuswii_hp.1800b652.html

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20024780-17.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20101210/tc_digitaltrends/xboxoutsellswiiinrecordnovemberbutnotbymuch

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ps3-vs-xbox360-sales.html

[for-q-clinton]

Clearly one a console dominates the market as playstation 2 did to fall to 3rd place and even lose the popular/cool branding to a new player in the video game business..yeah i’d call that crushed.

[for-q-clinton]

Clearly when a console dominates the market as playstation 2 did to fall to 3rd place and even lose the popular/cool branding to a new player in the video game business..yeah i’d call that crushed.

[for-q-clinton]

It got sent back, along with all but one of the other eval units. The one I had my hands on was a Samsung Focus. Outlook Mobile crashed on a regular basis, battery life was fairly short, and the promised ability to view Office documents was unstable at best.

That must have been a flakey model or you're just lying. Based on your previous comments I'd say you're making this up. I know when I bought mine the ATT store manager and the other work there were telling me they can't wait to toss their iPhone 4 for the Windows Phone 7.

I have a focus and it never bombs on email. In fact, the ATT store manager said he's tried to get the one in the store to freeze and it's rock solid. I've had mine for about 1 month now and I have to save I haven't seen a single one of the issues you mentioned.

While you were testing it did you use a windows live ID and the xbox 360 integration? If so what did you think of it? Also did you use the zune integration as well? What did you think of the UI?

[Spktyr]

We had a variety of units. I can’t comment on them as I didn’t use them. The Samsung Focus has had issues other reviewers noticed, and the other Focus tester in the office had the same problem.

I didn’t test Windows Live ID or x360 integration on a *work* phone. I did look for integration with our VPN (not there) and with our servers (not there).

Others have commented about similar problems. See these:

http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/windows-phone-7-even-bigger-disaster-i-thought-912
http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-20025226-85.html

[Spktyr]

In which case, you must also admit that the xBox has been totally and utterly crushed by the Wii. To come from a distant third in the console wars to an overwhelming, dominating, good-luck-catching-us-any-time-soon, “IT PRINTS MONEY!” first place, Nintendo pulled it off - and the Wii outsells the other two consoles 2:1.

Sorry, the xBox doesn’t dominate.

[for-q-clinton]

Actually the wii did extremely well this generation. However, Microsoft targeted Sony. And they WON.

Now they set their sites on the wii with the kinect and look who is winning in sales the last 5 months! Hint: it’s not wii and playstation, but if you read some of the links I sent you you’ll see Microsoft kinect is doing extremely well.

Why does it hurt you so bad if Microsoft does well in game consoles? Are you a gamer? or do you just hate to see an American company do well?

[for-q-clinton]

Microsoft targeted sony and they accomplished that goal. The wii was doing surprising well but it was a different target audience. Now Microsoft is targeting that audience with kinect. And if you read the links I posted earlier you’ll see that they are winning against the wii now as well (when you compare growth and yoy sales).

Will they surpass the wii this gen? Most likely not; however, with kinect they are poised to be the gaming leader for the second part of this console generation.

And with the next generation everything going to the cloud...Microsoft is set to win big time.

Oh that’s another area Microsoft is doing extremely well...the cloud.

BTW: Are you a gamer?

[for-q-clinton]

Freerepublic keeps timing out on my posts...sorry if I post similiar items. If you are trying windows phone 7 as a business phone only then you're doing it wrong. Blackberry and the old windows mobile are business phones. Microsoft is targeting the iPhone model where you go after consumers and then the business will follow. Windows Mobile targeted businesses thinking they'd drive consumers to buy their products. But what happened was consumers bought the phones they wanted and then the business adapted.