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Topic: Enterprise Software

2.1 million Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to OEMs in 2010

Summary: Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 operating system seems to be doing pretty well, with a fast growth in applications as well.

Matthew Miller

By for Smartphones and Cell Phones |

Tomorrow Microsoft will host its latest earnings call and in advance of this, I had the opportunity to speak with Greg Sullivan about Windows Phone 7. We heard some fairly impressive sales numbers in December and Greg informed me that Microsoft sold 2.1 million licenses of Windows Phone 7 to OEMs, up to 31 December 2010. This figure was about 1.5 million in mid-December so they are showing nice growth here.

Microsoft also conducted some surveys of Windows Phone 7 buyers and found that 93% of these owners are satisfied or very satisfied with their new phone. 90% also recommend the product to others so these survey results are quite positive and match my own personal experiences.

As I talk about in my Windows Phone 7 Wednesday software feature, there are now over 6,800 applications for Windows Phone 7 with a growth rate of about 400 apps per week.

I imagine when we see more phones and more carriers, namely Verizon, we may see more people trying out Windows Phone 7. As I have stated before, I cannot give up my HD7 and am extremely pleased with Windows Phone 7 so I am very happy to hear it is doing pretty well and also hearing that Microsoft is in it for the long haul. We will soon see an update, more applications, and more hardware so go to your local AT&T or T-Mobile store and try one out. Everyone I have shown my HD7 to has been quite impressed with the UI and experience.

These figures may not sound like much when compared to iOS and Android, but Windows Phone 7 is a completely new OS and should continue to grow over time. There is still a lot of room for growth in the smartphone world and Microsoft is making moves to aggressively promote Windows Phone 7.

Topics: Enterprise Software, Microsoft, Mobility, Operating Systems, Software, Windows

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71 comments
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  • Again, how many WP7 phones have been activated. The "licenses shipped" is a

    meaningless number.
    DonnieBoy
    Reply Vote

    • RE: 2.1 million Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to OEMs in 2010

      @DonnieBoy

      Then explain why it increased. If all the previous licences are still sitting on shelves, how did they sell more?

      You really are starting to sound desperate Donnie, I can only hope your psyche doesn't suffer irreparable damage from another MS success.
      tonymcs@...
      Reply Vote

      • Hey, MS. . . Release the data and it will stop DonnieBoy and others

        @tonymcs@... <br><br>Why not push MS for the real end-user numbers. When released, the facts will stop the naysayers like DonnieBoy in their tracks. Microsoft's weird behavior here is fanning the flames. . . . or are the naysayers correct?<br><br>Think about it . . . .
        Plain Logic
        Reply Vote

      • Plain Logic: Yes, just give us the numbers so we know there is no

        hankie pankie. If the actual sales are about the same as the "shipped" units, that sure would shut us up really fast!!!
        DonnieBoy
        Reply Vote

      • RE: 2.1 million Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to OEMs in 2010

        @ DonnieBoy..

        So when they was saying Apple is the 3rd largest computer company because they "SHIPPED" so many Mac computers, that don't count right because they didn't show how many they sold just shipped right?
        stm24
        Reply Vote

      • RE: 2.1 million Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to OEMs in 2010

        @tonymcs@? It really sound like Microsoft is desperate. IF Windows phone 7 series phones do not sell well the OEMs may seek to get refunds on unsold licenses. If that were to happen, then Microsoft would lose a great deal of money. So there is a concerted effort to keep the actual sales numbers away form the public in general. Saying you sold a license sticker, to an OEM is not the same as your competitor saying they activated a license for the consumer. You got that? Yes, Microsoft sold a lot of license stickers. But how many are for the yet unreleased CDMA version of these phones? If the phones went on sale in October (abroad), and November (Domestically); how long before that were the licenses ship to the OEMs? So the numbers are not all that kosher. If Microsoft came out without he number of activated phones, and they know exactly how many were activated, it would show some level of honesty. Instead they count the licenses (stickers) sent to the OEMs. Which is not only dishonest, but deceitful.
        Rick_K
        Reply Vote

      • 30 million WP7 Phones by end of 2011??

        I reckon it's less than 200k, because if it was say half a million, they would point to the Nexus one 100,000 sales and say 'look we sold far more than Google at their launch'.

        So it will not be significantly more than Google Nexus One sales. My guess is 200k or less.

        I'm guessing they have price breaks at 500k and 100k, so 4 OEMs committing to 500k licenses and 1 committing to 100k would account for the 2.1.

        Their claim based on IDC, is 30 million WP7 phones by end of 2011, which seems a bit laughable if they can't even release actual handset sales.

        http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-counting-on-brand-new-users-to-hit-30-million-windows-phone-7-target/6375
        guihombre
        Reply Vote

    • RE: 2.1 million Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to OEMs in 2010

      @DonnieBoy To yesterday, probably less than half a million, if the Facebook app scrape data is relevant. http://j.mp/gl6Fom

      That would make less than 4,500 activations a day worldwide, and trending down.

      The trend should turn down real quick now that Intel has announced plans for an x86 phone running Windows 8 - which could not possibly be compatible with WP7 of course. Why would you buy or develop for a phone when you know its end-of-life date is so close?
      symbolset
      Reply Vote

      • RE: 2.1 million Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to OEMs in 2010

        @symbolset
        Not all users use Facebook. Even if you say so, there are 600,000+ active FB users, which is more than half a million as commonsense says.
        Ram U
        Reply Vote

      • RE: 2.1 million Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to OEMs in 2010

        @Rama.NET All you're doing here is drawing attention to my link, which is going to let people see the numbers. You don't want that. You're working against your own purpose here. Are you sure there's not an applicable section of your astroturfer's handbook you should review?

        And you read the numbers wrong too. The native and official apps are duplicative.
        symbolset
        Reply Vote

      • RE: 2.1 million Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to OEMs in 2010

        @symbolset <br>Even if they are duplicative, the information is clearly showing it is progressive. Just compare it with Android and iOS hits and the trend is same. So you can't say it is not doing good. And Windows 8 is going to be unified code base for both WP7 and Windows 7 if all goes well according to plans, at least thats what I read from the blogs here. If that is so Intel releasing a phone with Windows 8 wouldn't be a surprise. To each their own. Also my numbers analogy is not wrong. Native Facebook app just gets integrated with People Hub and that is very limited. Facebook app does more than that. There may be overlapping but not entirely invalid. And also I can show there are people who dont use Facebook at all and have iPhones, Android, BB, Nokia, WP7, WinMo etc. So counting on Facebook activations or hits is just plain wrong and never give you the big picture. That is what I was telling about.
        Ram U
        Reply Vote

    • RE: 2.1 million Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to OEMs in 2010

      @DonnieBoy
      2.1 million
      Loverock Davidson
      Reply Vote

      • RE: 2.1 million Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to OEMs in 2010

        @Loverock Davidson Woohoo lovie, they printed 2.1 million stickers! And it only cost Microsoft several hundred million dollars to achieve that. Way to show a profit, oh wait, that would be a loss. Now add to that the BOGO deals that it took to sell that 360,000 Zunephones. Wow I mean wow. I guess the Wow is now, huh? More like ?Wow they spend all that money and still can?t sell the phone based on merit?. :) :) :)
        Rick_K
        Reply Vote

      • RE: 2.1 million Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to OEMs in 2010

        @Rick_K
        2.1million from zero is a loss? I hope you don't do accounting at your workplace. Microsoft SOLD 2.1million phones and sold out in some countries. Again, how is that a loss when the phone has only been out for a few months and they started at nothing? LOL go back to elementary math class and learn a thing or two. You said it, Wow I mean wow.
        Loverock Davidson
        Reply Vote

      • RE: 2.1 million Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to OEMs in 2010

        @Loverock Davidson Once again Lovie, you missed the point. Just be glad that ignorance is not illegal.Microsoft printed up 2.1 million stickers. This does not mean that 2.1 million phones exist, only that there are plans for 2.1 million phones. For all we know, half of the licenses are for use on the CDMA versions. But those versions are not on sale at the moment. Got it? Just to blindly say that there are 2.1 million Zunephones in the wild is ignorant. It is probably closer to 350,000 Zunephones. Which is not a good number for two plus months. Microsoft will not tell anyone how many are activated, only that 2.1 million licenses were sold to the OEMs. There is no direct correlation between a license sold to an OEM, and a Zunephone sold to a customer.
        Rick_K
        Reply Vote

      • RE: 2.1 million Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to OEMs in 2010

        @Rick_K
        [i]there are plans for 2.1 million phones.[/i]
        Exactly! 2.1 million phones plan to be sold and this number keeps going up and up and up! That is excellent considering the phone has been out for only a few months. No other phone has sold this well this quickly. Microsoft sold 2.1million of these to its customers which are the carriers. Now its up to the carriers to sell it to its customers. There has to be at least 1.5 million of them out there because as others have said, they just keep selling more and more. I can't understand everyone's fascination with find out how many phones have been activated. It doesn't matter, all you need to know is that 2.1million phones are in the works.
        Loverock Davidson
        Reply Vote

    • not only meaningless...

      @DonnieBoy <br>but a very bad number. poor wm fanboy matthew tries to spin the extremly bad numbers as "nice growth" which is ridiculous at best. 2 million in almost a quarter (which translates to a whooping 20 million in revenue and is probably around 2% market share) is even worse than their old windows mobile 6.x numbers. they should pull a kin on this and spare them the embarrassment.
      banned from zdnet
      Reply Vote

    • Again for the slow class:

      @DonnieBoy Microsoft sold 2.1M licenses to 3 hardware manufacturers - HTC, Samsung, and LG. With me so far?

      So Microsoft SOLD 2.1M licenses to manufacturers.

      Now the 3 manufacturers have collectively produced 2.1M units - as the manufacturers are not going to buy licenses for devices they are not going to make.

      So now we have 2.1M licenses sold and 2.1M devices made.

      These 2.1 licensed and produced devices are sold and shipped to various AT&T stores - so now we have 2.1M licensed, produced, and shipped devices at the stores.

      Most locations keep very little stock on hand - they are small stores selling many different models and brands of devices from feature phones to smartphones and inventory space is at a premium.

      So why keep harping on Microsoft for activation figures when Microsoft has already sold the 2.1M licenses - ask AT&T for the sales figures.

      Now honestly this "how come MS isn't releasing activation figures" crap is getting old - you guys sound like broken records...
      athynz
      Reply Vote

      • RE: 2.1 million Windows Phone 7 licenses sold to OEMs in 2010

        @athynz I believe his point of contention is that the OEMs have purchased 2.1 million licenses. Not that there are 2.1 million phone in the hands of customers. being these are not just Android phones with a different OS, but different phones. The point being is that the major OEMs might be buying licenses based on how many the plan to build, as you can?t build a Zunephone without a license first.
        Rick_K
        Reply Vote

      • Sold licenses != sold, or even built, devices.

        @athynz Part of what a lot of people like you miss here is the way a software licensor can account for "sales" to the OEM licensees. Something Microsoft has traditionally done is "sell" X number of licenses to an OEM for Y amount of money, often at a price that is significantly less than what .5X or even .1X licenses would cost, thus encouraging the OEM to buy way more licenses than intended devices. Another approach is to sell X licenses to the OEM that represent "an optimistic estimation" of annual production, but charge for the number of licenses in an initial production run. MS will then defer billing on those additional licenses until the devices are built and sold to retailers, often under additional deferred billing. They have to account for this in their results, but they can legally say they "sold" those licenses quarters or sometimes years in advance.

        We keep sounding like a broken record because Microsoft keeps obfuscating their "real" sales numbers. Today's results call will shed some light on the matter.
        matthew_maurice
        Reply Vote
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