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Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already

By | December 21, 2010, 6:50am PST

Summary: Microsoft has something to be pleased about this holiday season. Over 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices were sold in the first six weeks.

Microsoft has something to be pleased about this holiday season. Over 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices were sold in the first six weeks.

Achim Berg, vice president of business and marketing for Windows Phones, said that the figure was “in line” with Microsoft’s expectations. However, he later mentioned that “measuring for success is more long term than short term,” so it’s nice to see them being humble about it. Other than expanding to more mobile carriers globally in 2011, he didn’t say much about where Microsoft plans to go from here with its smartphones.

Are you surprised by the news? Do you own one of those 1.5 million WP7 smartphones? And if so, are you happy with your purchase?

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Topics

Microsoft Windows Phone 7, Microsoft Windows Phone, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
shenzhen2112 21st Dec 2010
@jrggzmn

Also proud to say I am one of those 1.5 million owners.
View in thread
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
jrggzmn 21st Dec 2010
Proud to say I am one of those 1.5 million owners.
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
hfsma 21st Dec 2010
@jrggzmn
LAME... The only thing Microsoft does good is win7 and office. The future is Apple, Linux, Google!
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
empirestatebuddy 21st Dec 2010
@hfsma

It took the first iPhone 74 days to sell 1 million. And it took Android almost a year.
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
illegaloperation 21st Dec 2010
@hfsma
In your dream, maybe.
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but Apple actually sold that number of phones to consumers..
doctorSpoc Updated - 21st Dec 2010
@empirestatebuddy that wasn't the number delivered to the sales channel like this number from MS, that 1mil was sales to actual buying consumers..

also that 74 days if from 3 years ago when the smartphone market was much different from today.. Apple sold 1.7million iPhone 4s in three days.. if MS wants to compete in TODAY's market they are going to have to do a lot better than the numbers that companies where doing 3 years ago..
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Its only 35714 sales per day, activations are less
Uralbas 21st Dec 2010
Can't compare the market three years ago, this is a very small number.

What really matters is if this grows exponentially, linearly stays stagnant or declines. Then we shall see if the LONG RUN will have any significance.

Personally it would be best to stay away from Microsoft. They should improve their OS so that it can run on ARM processors, until then, good luck and Ill keep my hands off your handsets. And even if it succeeds I shall do the same cause I don't like to be taxed by them.

Finally 4000 apps in 6 weeks is a very low number considering how many C# developers exists. That is very very disappointing. i was expecting they hit 100k under one year. At this rate if they reach 25000 it will be a huge hit.
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But they haven't actually sold 1.5million phones to consumers..
doctorSpoc 21st Dec 2010
@jrggzmn - this is the number they have delivered to the sales channel.. Mary Joe Foley (ZDnet.. All about Microsoft Blog) has confirmed that this number is NOT the number actually sold to consumers.. just the number delivered to sales channel.. for all we know the vast majority of that 1.5million could be sitting on store shelves collecting dust..
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Another mindless Rachel King post
Economister 21st Dec 2010
@jrggzmn

Maybe she should read Ed Bott's blog on the subject. She just might learn something, but I doubt it.
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
dmatranga 21st Dec 2010
@jrggzmn Also proud to say I'm one of those 1.5 million Windows Phone owners.

I had an iPhone 3G for 2 years, running painfully slow and my wife and I just switched to AT&T's Samsung Focus (super AMOLED anyone?) running WP7.

We are really happy with the change so far, but anxiously awaiting some more apps to become available. Since they were running the promotion, we got one of the phones for free too.
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
shenzhen2112 21st Dec 2010
@jrggzmn

Also proud to say I am one of those 1.5 million owners.
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Google Activates 300k EVERY DAY
itguy08 21st Dec 2010
Apple is even higher than that and it took MS a month and a half to do 5 days worth of Android activations.....

Pull the plug already, the POS is done.
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
swenmark 21st Dec 2010
@itguy08
POS based on what?
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
Zedox 21st Dec 2010
@swenmark

Don't feed the troll.
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
itguy08 21st Dec 2010
@swenmark

Really BAD UI, bugs, and just a generally poor experience.
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
mgrubb@... 21st Dec 2010
@itguy08
Yeah, we should all go out and buy , I don't know, a smart phone that you have to hold exactly correct to keep from dropping a signal? Or a phone that you have to buy a special bumper gaurd so you won't drop a signal? Or maybe a phone that has glass on the back so if (when) you drop it it will shatter? Wait, I know, we should all be so luck to buy a phone that is so locked down you almost have to contact the man himself to simply turn it on!

The iphone is one of the biggest POS I've seen, and yet somehow the man has convinced so many that they should buy it anyway!
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
dvanderwerken 21st Dec 2010
Can someone add some comparative statistics to this number to give us an idea how the WP7 phones stack up against other OS/Carriers?
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
empirestatebuddy 21st Dec 2010
@dvanderwerken

From what I understand, it took the first iPhone 74 days to sell 1 million units. And it took Android almost a year. Can someone back this up with links?
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this 1.5mil number is not the number sold to consumers..
doctorSpoc Updated - 21st Dec 2010
@dvanderwerken - it's the number MS has delivered to the carriers basically.. that's the 1st point

3years ago when the iPhone 1st came out.. apple did 1million in about two months.. but that was 3 years ago.. things have changed quite a bit since then.. THIS year Apple sold 1.7million iPhone 4s in 3 days.. so this is what MS is really up against.. they are selling less phones in 2 months than Apple sold in three days..
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No sorry that's wrong. MS does not deliver any phones to anyone
Johnny Vegas 21st Dec 2010
They dont make them. They can not provide numbers anytime they wish. Independent hw makers deliver them to multiple carriers in multiple countries. MS has to wait for them all to put together their quarterly numbers and add them all up before they know how many have been sold. These partners dont have to give them daily or weekly updates on sales or WP licenses. Apple can immediately come up with the numbers because they control the hw. And comparing to iphone 3 years ago is ridiculous. Their was NO competition then. If their were no iphones or android phones now probably 1000x WP's would have been sold by now. It took apple 2 and a half months to reach 1M. Objectively WP is off to a great start.
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
herry.k 21st Dec 2010
@doctorSpoc

Let me ask you a question.
If MS manage to sell as many as apple an android, would you get a WP7.
My guess would be no.
I don't know what MS did to you but you don't sound too positive.
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i assume they know about activations just like Google does..
doctorSpoc 21st Dec 2010
@Johnny Vegas.. don't WP7 activate a Live account or whatever MS has don't they? that would be a pretty accurate count of real consumer sales.. Google manages to know daily activations through their marketplace without having to go through carriers.. what's MSs problem?

c'mon man.. they know, they just don't want to report the low numbers.. they've just been getting bad press without reporting numbers, so now they try this lame smoke an mirrors trick by reporting numbers to sales channel rather than real concrete sales to consumers..

and like i said.. this is not 2007 anymore.. MS doesn't have the luxury of starting slow.. they need to hit the ground running.. Apple may have not had any real competition, but they also didn't have a road map an had to redefine the market.. MS already has a bar to look at.. they know exactly what they need to do..
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
doctorSpoc Updated - 21st Dec 2010
@herry.k you are wrong, i'm a UI designer and i actually really like WP7.. it's about the most elegant mobile OS out there right now, some real originality and attention to detail and thinking outside of the box... and i really like the concept of the hubs and bubbling up info to users etc.. i think there are some gapping holes in the execution... no multitasking, no copy past, no folders.. just a huge long alphabetical list of apps if you want to just launch a specific app?? can't browse apps effectively.. you know if you wanted to say see what games do i have and want to play.. no big market place of apps etc.. there are definitely some big gaping holes there, but all in all is elegant and good direction and not a carbon copy of iPhone like google did..

but the thing is they are so late to the game and they are coming in 3yrs late and even though they give a unique experience are still almost 2years behind in term of features.. i think it's a same because i actually like it but i think they are just too late to the game.. devs can only support so many platforms and MS is too late to the game.. look at WebOS.. they have everything.. there OS rivals everything that Google and Apples does and it's not enough.. of course they had crapy hardware.. but still they OS is rock solid but couldn't attract devs.. apps are the key because they make the phone into anything you want it to be.. without apps/devs you're going to fail..
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
gtdworak 21st Dec 2010
Didn't Apple sell something like 2 million phones in its first three days of sales. So much for Ballmer's iPhone killer. Can't help but wonder how much longer he'll be allowed at the helm of Microsoft.
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
hfsma 21st Dec 2010
@gtdworak
Without Apple everyone would still be using black and white screen blackberry's. Thank Apple for starting the smartphone era..
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
illegaloperation 21st Dec 2010
@hfsma
Sorry, Apple didn't invent the coloe screen.
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
Lazlo13 21st Dec 2010
@hfsma

that is SO stupid. guess you don't remember that before apple ... it was microsoft and palm. think those MIGHT have had color TOUCH screens.

microsoft beat apple to smartphones by 10 years.

you just like apple because it's fruity.
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
illegaloperation 21st Dec 2010
@gtdworak
Nope. It took Apple 74 days to sell a million phones.
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sold 1.7million iPhone4's in 3days.. it's not 2007 anymore guys
doctorSpoc 21st Dec 2010
@day2die MS is competing with 2010 phones.. those are the kinds of numbers they need to compete with.. millions of phones in days on release and 300,000+ activations a day..t that's the market in 2010.. forget about 2007.. MS doesn't have the luxury of competing with those numbers any longer.. they should have gotten their **** together in 2007 if they wanted to compete with those numbers..
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
illegaloperation 21st Dec 2010
@gtdworak
Apple sold 1 million phones in 74 days.
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
Zedox 21st Dec 2010
Loving my Samsung Focus. Came in clutch with quick pics of chicks. LOL!
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
raypin 21st Dec 2010
yup. count me in as one of the 1.5M. Very happy with my HTC HD7.
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
hfsma 21st Dec 2010
@raypin
You must be over 50...
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
empirestatebuddy 21st Dec 2010
@hfsma

And you must be like... nine.
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
raypin Updated - 21st Dec 2010
@hfsma mmm.....actually, I'm in my '40s and proud of it ! Just to add, I also have an iPhone (first Gen) and a Blackberry but the best smartphone for me right now is the HTC HD7. Why is it always have to be either/or? In case you're interested, I also have an Apple MacBook Air and a Dell Adamo XPS....I love Google and Bing. In short, I'm brand-agnostic. It's the product or service that interests me, not the company that makes it.
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
ericesque 21st Dec 2010
I'm pleasantly surprised. It's worth noting that these are sales to manufacturers. The 1.5 million figure doesn't translate directly into devices in consumer's hot little hands, but it gives us an idea.
I'm still waiting for WP7 to come to Verizon. If the rumors of a January launch on Verizon are true, I'll be in line in or around 30 days time.
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Windows Sheep!
systemx 21st Dec 2010
nt
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
hfsma 21st Dec 2010
I was in a meeting today at a giant oil and gas company, out of 13 people in the room, 8 had iphones on the table...
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I own one & LOVE it!
empirestatebuddy 21st Dec 2010
It's a great phone. It's as simple as that. And once Microsoft starts showcasing what the software can do in their commercials, it will continue to grow. There's a certain "wow" factor to the new OS... much like there was a "wow" factor to the first iPhone. Ironically, the iPhone kind of went mainstream... and Microsoft almost seems cool at the moment. (I did say "almost.") wink
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
ashwarner 21st Dec 2010
Fanboy rants are pointless and it gets very boring.
iPhone 4 sales were high as there was nothing like it at the time, WP7 changes that but it is long term sales that count. We can all spout the "we sold more than you" arguments but the market is constantly changing and evolving so "oneupmanship" rants form all sides is pointless. You can say the same thing for Market Place it has grown faster than the others at start. There are so many factors, device upgrades customers stuck in contracts staying with what you know etc.
There is no way anyone can state 100% the market at such an early stage. Sale figures etc are sounding good and good luck to everyone involved.

One thing with Apple fans is that once they get hooked they becom zelots to the Apple cause and will dismiss anything non Apple. it is sad really but they like what they have because it works for them
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RE: Microsoft has sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices already
Jamiebu 21st Dec 2010
WP7 phone is awesome. Much easier to use than the android or the iPhone. And as a developer, it is a LOT easier to write apps which in the long run will get Microsoft back in the game. WP7 is a winner.
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WP7 owner
shenzhen2112 21st Dec 2010
I own HTC HD7. I love it love it love. I'm never going back to iOS. My wife is going to ditch her iPhone and pick up a second gen WP7 device next summer when the Chinese IMEs are in.

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