Did a $100 million advertising budget only manage to generate 40,000 Windows Phone 7 sales on launch day?
This according to TheStreet:
Even with a glitzy media intro last month hosted by champion inside-seller and company chief Steve Ballmer, Microsoft, which spent a reported $100 million on the phone’s advertising campaign, sold a mere 40,000 Windows 7 phones Monday, according to a market research source who tracks phone sales.
Time to put that 40,000 figure in perspective. Apple had some 600,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4, and is selling some 270,000 a day. Google says that some 200,000 Android handsets are being activated daily. Microsoft gave away some 89,000 handsets to employees, a figure not included in the sales estimate.
UPDATE: Actually, the Microsoft deal is with employees is more complex than that - employees will be offered up to $220 towards off contract, or $550 for those on contract and outside their upgrade cycle. Pre-orders start November 8th and delivery won’t be until after November 18th.
Are potential customers playing a wait-and-see game? Did the marketing campaign fail to excite people? Are there too many Windows Phone 7 handsets to choose from? Is it going to take time for people to take Microsoft seriously in the mobile sector?
Personally, I think it’s going to take time. But I also think that there are too many WP7 handset OEMs scrabbling for attention, but again time will thin down this herd, and the real winners and losers are revealed.
Microsoft had better be in this for the long haul …
