Microsoft offers up "Windows Phone 7 numbers that (don't) matter"

Microsoft is at it again with Windows Phone 7, offering up numbers that it claims are the 'numbers that matter' but which in reality aren't the numbers that matter.

Brandon Watson offers up the numbers on the Windows Phone Developer blog. Here's a breakdown:

• 1.5 million Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone and Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone downloads
• 36,000 AppHub community members
• 11,500 apps
• 7,500 paid apps
• 1,200 developers added each week
• 1,100 ad-funded apps
• 12 app downloaded per customer on average
• 1.8 days for apps to be certified
• 62% of apps pass certification first time
• 44% of apps include trial versions
• 40% of registered developers have published an app

But there's one number that Microsoft isn't talking about - Windows Phone 7 activations. How many handsets are out there in the hands of users browsing the web and downloading apps? It's an important question that Microsoft continues to dodge.

In an attempt top get to the bottom of this I approached NetMarketShare to see what sort of Windows Phone 7 usage it's are seeing. Vince Vizzaccaro, EVP Marketing and Strategic Alliances at NetApplications.com had this to say:

We are tracking Windows Phone 7, but it hasn't gained enough market share yet to show up in our reports.

This gives us a clue as to how small the Windows Phone 7 usage actually is. The OS report for February goes as far as listing Windows CE with a usage share of 0.02% and browsers down as far as Chrome 4 with a usage share of 0.06%. That means that Windows Phone 7 (or the Windows Phone 7 IE browser) usage share much be lower than this. This means that the overall usage share for Windows Phone 7 must be incredibly low.

Microsoft, give us the numbers that really matter!