Microsoft Has Sold More Than Two Million Windows Phone 7 Devices Discussion

[Ed Hardy]

Microsoft says that its Windows Phone 7 platform has now reached the two million mark. It took the software giant's new smartphone operating system about ten weeks to reach this point.

Read the full content of this Article: Microsoft Has Sold More Than Two Million Windows Phone 7 Devices

Related Articles:

• Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Review
• Samsung Focus Review

[LandSurveyor]

Wouldn't mind reading some user feedback, both here and European.

I think it will manage to be a success.

[Drillbit]

Considering that's actually 9 models, that averages to 222,222 per device in about three months. Please note it is shipped not sold. That 2 million devices floating in the distribution channel, doesn't mean they are all sold.

In manufacturer's eyes, that's not a success, because you don't have the volumes to amortize your production costs. If that two million happens to be one phone, it would be a success, for example, the LG Optimus One shipped over 2 million in about two to three months. Because that is essentially one model and one manufacturer, that would be a success. We do know LG complained about their unsatisfaction of their WP7 sales.

[r0k]

I agree that 2 million spread among 9 devices does not a success make, but I wonder if WP7 is poised to be more like Android and less like RIM and iOS which are each only offered on one family of devices made by one manufacturer. Android OS is successful relative to iOS because there are so darn many devices and carriers to choose from. It would be difficult to argue that WP7 is a flop unless we later find out that only a few hundred thousand of those 2 million devices had actually made it into the hands of users.

[imported_Duncan]

Considering that's actually 9 models, that averages to 222,222 per device in about three months. Please note it is shipped not sold. That 2 million devices floating in the distribution channel, doesn't mean they are all sold.

In manufacturer's eyes, that's not a success, because you don't have the volumes to amortize your production costs. If that two million happens to be one phone, it would be a success, for example, the LG Optimus One shipped over 2 million in about two to three months. Because that is essentially one model and one manufacturer, that would be a success. We do know LG complained about their unsatisfaction of their WP7 sales.

If we take some of the early ownership polls seriously, then LG's dissatisfaction may well be down to having a small fraction of the available sales, with HTC and Samsung dominating.

[Drillbit]

If we take some of the early ownership polls seriously, then LG's dissatisfaction may well be down to having a small fraction of the available sales, with HTC and Samsung dominating.

That maybe happening, considering HTC has at least five phones, and the Samsung Focus appears to be the most popular of the three WP7 with AT&T.

As I said in another thread, it is really a bad idea to launch multiple phones of the same platform all at once on the same carrier. They end up cannibalizing each other, especially when they all have identical specs. And right down to the last letter is what you get with WP7 phones. I'm explaining that is why Verizon is staggering and distributing their Android phone launches over time. if Verizon launches Android phones in the same month, its usually because those phones have distinct market niches (Citrus, Vortex, Continuum, Droid 2 Globe and Droid Pro).

T-Mobile on the other hand, had the right idea to just launch a single WP7 phone, the HD7.

To put it in context, Samsung shipped the same amount of the even more expensive Samsung Galaxy Tab, just the Galaxy Tab, in the same time frame as all the WP7 phones. Two million in less than three months. That's only one model.

Here is another context. Symbian^3 shipped more than 5 million handsets, in only two models, the N8 and C7. In relative terms, that's much more successful than WP7, and yet Nokia is still getting black eyed. Granted, the success of the N8 and C7 are factors that limited Nokia from further financial hemorrhaging. They could have a better quarter if they actually shipped the C6-01, the X7 and the E7.

In rough context, at least 366,000 iOS devices (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad) that is being shipped daily, and at least 300,000 Androids (not counting phones and tablets without Google Services) that are being activated by Google each day.

in terms for the manufacturers, HTC maybe taking a financial bath because it has five separate WP7 models. There is going to be a big difference in profitability when you sell 1 million of 1 model vs. 1 million of 5 models. If you understand this, you understand why Apple keeps its production lineup so simple, and yet, making it the most profitable phone manufacturer. Granted though, these WP7 phones are also sharing many of the same parts as their Android phones, but that sharing also makes these phones their lack of physical distinction which also affects their sales. They all look like some variation of an Android phone (the Nexus One/HTC Desire). Likewise the same phenomenon is seen with Samsung with Focus/Omnia 7 vs. the Galaxy S. Dell is also sharing the same platform on both WP7 and Android with the Venue.

LG in contrast, their Quantum series aren't sharing much with their Android counterparts. The wildly successful Optimus One series is a midend phone with specs lower than the Quantums, while the 2X, Black and Revolution are even more higher end.

[imported_Duncan]

That maybe happening, considering HTC has at least five phones, and the Samsung Focus appears to be the most popular of the three WP7 with AT&T.

As I said in another thread, it is really a bad idea to launch multiple phones of the same platform all at once on the same carrier. They end up cannibalizing each other, especially when they all have identical specs. And right down to the last letter is what you get with WP7 phones.

If I'd been planning things for MS I would have:

1) Licenced four manufacturers to begin with (probably HTC, Samsung, Dell and LG). Which has sort of happened, but MS did muddy things by including Asus and Sony E in the mix at various points.

2) Licenced only one phone per manufacturer in the initial round.

3) Encouraged initial exclusive arrangements with carriers (most nations have three to four major carriers, so they'd all be able to have an exclusive).

That would have enabled a much clearer, simpler and stronger initial push. More focus from each manufacturer, one device per carrier to concentrate on.

Eight or nine devices, with multiple devices from manufacturers and on carriers just makes for a fragmented and diluted approach.

Oh and - they should have had CDMA from the start. I'm in the UK, so like most of the world CDMA isn't relevant to me, and I do get why MS didn't think it a priority (as GSM is the most important mobile technology still), but CDMA devices would have widened the opportunities for sales in the US, and though it's only a fairly small part of the world market, the US is still the home of most of the significant tech journalism, and as far as many tend to look.

Note, for example, how many WP7 stories in the past three months have treated November 8 as its launch date, and talked about supposed US figures as if they were the only ones. So why didn't MS ensure they had Verizon on board (and stolen a march on Apple at the same time)?

All that said - WP7 has still had a launch that seems to have led to sales on a par with the iPhone launch four years ago, and the Android launch two years ago, so if MS can hold their nerve, ride the tsunami of incredibly poor reporting (and well done Ed Hardy for being an exception to that) re. initial sales, and get their act together going forward (better promotion and get those updates out), success can still be theirs.

[Drillbit]

Actually, WP7 sets start getting sold around the third week of October in other parts of the world.

You can't compare WP7 launch with iPhone four years ago, nor with the G1. Why? First of all, the more you go back, the smaller the smartphone market gets. At least by 100% Each year, the smartphone market has been doubling its size. Back in 2008, it was at least 4x smaller. In 2007 8x. You have to compare the ratio of sales vs. the size of the market.

Second, both the iPhone and the G1 were launched only with one carrier and in one country. With the G1, it was starting with the smallest of the four major US carriers. WP7 launched with 9 handsets, 60 carriers in 30 countries. I bet you when iPhone or Android reached 60 carriers in 30 countries, they must still be far outsellilng WP7 in the same context.

Third, WP7 is a new platform but Microsoft is not a newcomer in the mobile biz. That's why it is a 7, not a 1. Microsoft already has all the connections with carriers and the makers established for years and years. Apple and Google literally started with nothing.

Here is something that has to be added. LG and Samsung are not modest companies. If something is selling like hotcakes, they will say it. Samsung just boasted they sold over 2 million Samsung Galaxy Tabs. They boasted moving over 10 million Galaxy S. LG also boasted over two million Optimus One. What they didn't and could not boast was their WP7 sales.

[Varjak]

I wouldn't put THAT much emphasis on having so many models. As many sales as that 'adds' (if any, because some people may just want the alternative and the various models are often superficially different at best); they also LOSE sales (as Duncan wrote) because studies are showing that TOO MUCH choice can discourage someone from actually making a choice. If you had half as many WP7 choices, you wouldn't halve the number of sales. I don't think the number of models significantly affected the total number of sales, just like I don't think those that say Android sells more than the iPhone because there are more models.

I further agree with Duncan that limiting models might actually have helped.

[Drillbit]

The other problem of WP7 is since they don't want to be "fragmented" and they want to make things easy to update, Microsoft laid down hardware specs so strict that you can only support one resolution (800x480) and only one chipset, which is the Qualcomm 8250.

The result of that is every phone has the same spec. There is very little variation except in the casings and some hub that's included by the carrier or the manufacturer and ends up more annoying than useful, since they take up space of the limited front tile space. All the manufacturers simply made phones that just manage to fit or slightly above these specs. And when you have phones with the same specs, there is no differentiation among them, there is no low end, mid end or attempts to regionalize phones to meet specific country requirements like in China such as dual sims or in Japan like 1seg mobile TV.

That's the problem. You set requirements. and manufacturers only sole goal is just sail past those requirements. That's it. They don't design phones to compete with each other in disruptive and innovative ways like you see in the Android sphere, where phones are doing 4G, 3D, NFC, and dual core now. The result of setting strict standards, you limit innovation and invention on the handsets. Don't complain about fragmentation, the flipside to it is sheer diversity, breakneck innovation and evolution from Darwinian competition.