With a new platform you have to look at a couple of things, first of all customer satisfaction… Another is phone manufacturer sales – phones being bought and stocked by mobile operators and retailers on their way to customers. We are pleased that phone manufacturers sold over 1.5 million phones in the first six weeks, which helps build customer momentum and retail presence. – Achim Berg
MacDailyNews Take: By our calculations, factoring in channel stuffing and the fact that the IT doofus market is likely now saturated, Windows Phone ’07 critical mass will be achieved on the first Wednesday of never.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
Is that “sold to consumers”, or “sold to retailers to put on display for consumers to see”?
Let me guess…Buy one, get 2 free? And 4000 apps… wow… only 296,000 more to go! I’m waiting for the Virus app!
Google didn’t take that into consideration
and factoring in one to each and every MS employee…
Its not sold to end-users. It clearly said sold to carriers and retailers
Rather than ridicule Microsoft, I am rooting for them as they fragment the OEM market further. HTC, samsung, LG, and Dell, also use android. More fragmentation amongst OEMs is good for Apple.
Let’s see, one to every MS employee, thousands handed to all large Corporations as samples, hundreds to Tech press, MS employees give out as Xmas gifts and thousands in the pipeline.
They sold fifteen.
So much for pent-up demand.
“Another is phone manufacturer sales – phones being bought and stocked by mobile operators and retailers on their way to customers. We are pleased that phone manufacturers sold over 1.5 million phones in the first six weeks, which helps build customer momentum and retail presence.”
Yep, those sales were to the channel.
@KenC has a great point. Apple is going to benefit by a fragmented market of sub-par products. As long as they continue to innovate Apple will continue to stand above the crowd.
What is the rate of return?
Actually, I bet those went to customers. After all, they have, what, 10 different phones? So, on average, each one sold 150,000 each. Epic fail ten times over.
eyerhyme, the only GOOD reason to taunt MSFT over having a “mere” 4,000 fart apps is the amount of senseless taunting they shoveled out the door in the 90s and early parts of this century. My son still claims he “needs” Windows because he has to be able to run Visio on his home computer. The fact is, you can carefully select 4,000 iPhone apps and include 90% of the apps on 90% of all iPhones. 80% of the apps on 99% of all iPhones. Those thousands that you make such a big deal of are truly peripheral … bad fart apps (are there any “good” ones?) and Wikileak apps.
@PR – I see this story as being completely relevant to any Mac enthusiast or stockholder.
Microsoft hardware announcements have always tended to confuse “sold” with “shipped.” Zune sales figures turned out to include warehouses and shelves full of the devices, untouched by users, and hundreds of thousands given away at conferences, conventions, and trade shows (almost all of them unused by their recipients). As their corpse continues to rot, the datapoints intended to document their successes become more untrustworthy. Despite continued reports of revenue and earnings increases, billions have vanished form their balance sheet.
Shipped to warehouses off our property so we can CLAIM they’re sold.
Sounds familiar to me.
http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/story/10952875/1/microsofts-15-m-phone-stockpile.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
THUD!
Quarter mil per week, mil per month, 12 mil per year run rate out of the gate.
Look, it’s nothing to sneeze at, but they have their work cut out for them if their intention is to play for the trophy.
Engadget: “1.5 million units is a tiny, tiny number when you consider the platform launched on 10 devices on over 60 carriers in over 30 countries.” – sold to retailers.
Ouch.
IPhone 4 sold 1.7 Million in 3 days.
I would consider the MS phone a total failure after 6 weeks.
In Canada, Telus is giving away an XBox 360 with every Windows phone 7 phone sold on a 3 year contract.
How desperate is Microsoft?
Wow… lots of negativity here. I suppose none of you have actually USED the Windows Phone 7?
@Say Els: Does it matter if it’s 10 phone selling 150k each? Are we mac users the first to say “it’s all about the OS”. These phones, like iOS phones, are sold as Windows 7 Phones.
Windows Phone 7 looks like a solid OS. It’s not a copy of iPhone, which is refreshing and has some very unique ideas that I’d love to see Apple incorporate. Some of the OS makes the iPhone system look old.
Most of which went to Microsoft employees and employees of other companies who were forced to stick with a Windows phone.
Good luck with that when Microsoft abandons this device due to problems and poor sales (can you say Kin part 2).
@Chuklz: Your name is apt. It made me laugh. Most companies didn’t use any “previous” windows phones… there were none. And NO business I know standardized on anything except Blackberry because of their BES server and security. There are also only about 100k employees. Even if every single secretary, mailroom guy and cafeteria cook was given one, it would still be only 10% of all sales.
To those that are comparing the WIndows Phone 7 with the iPhone 4… you have to remember that a LOT of iPhone 4 users are just upgrading. They’re not switching.
In addition, the platform has recognition. The original iPhone, despite it being on the news, TV and lots of exposure, took 74 days to sell 1.0 million units.
Sure, those were different times, but 1.0M phones in 6 weeks is pretty decent.
Am I the lone Mac user who actually wants to Microsoft to succeed? To actually rise above the pettiness? To not look down in contempt at users of other platforms?