Disclosing official numbers for its Windows Phone 7 devices for the first time, a top Microsoft executive on Tuesday said the company is “gaining momentum” in the bitterly competitive smartphone arena.
Vice President for Mobile Communications Achim Berg, in an in-house Q&A posted on the software giant’s corporate site, said mobile carriers and retailers grabbed up 1.5 million devices running Phone 7 in their first six weeks on the market.
‘Not a Sprint’
“We know we have tough competition, and this is a completely new product,” Berg said. “We’re in the race — it’s not a sprint, but we are certainly gaining momentum and we’re in it for the long run.”
The first Phone 7 devices are the Dell Venue Pro, HTC HD7, HTC Surround, LG Quantum, and Samsung Focus.
The million-and-a-half figure doesn’t compare well to Apple’s top-selling iPhone. Apple said it and its partners, including exclusive U.S. carrier AT&T, sold three million iPhone 4s in the first three weeks, despite widely reported signal problems related to the design of its antenna. Google claims that 300,000 phones running its Android operating system are activated every day.
Consumer-devices expert Avi Greengart of Current Analysis said Microsoft is still making no claim about consumer adoption of the devices.
“It is definitely good news that Microsoft is releasing some numbers, and that those numbers are above a million,” said Greengart. “However, this just reflects shipments to carriers and retailers. It is clear that Microsoft’s distribution channel has bought into the new platform in a big way, but it is hard to know how well the phones have actually been selling to consumers.”
Meeting Expectations
When asked in the Q&A if the sales met his expectations for Phone 7, Berg said “Yes, and I think our expectations are realistic for a new platform. We started fresh with Windows Phone 7, and it’s…