Update on Windows Phone 7

GSM Arena reports that Microsoft has sold 2 million Windows Phone 7 licenses in the three months since the phones release. While that may sound like a lot, it actually is a poor showing. There are at least eleven Windows Phone 7 models in the market. Two million units divided by ten models means that a manufacturer would have been fortunate to sell 200,000 units of one model in three months.

In the same period, Nokia's sold about 6 million Symbian^3 OS mobile phones, Apple sold about 16 million of its iPhones and the number of Android equipped phones was about 27 million. So the two million may sound like a lot, but it is far from a successful launch. This number should be taken into perspective though. With the high end hardware specification, Windows Phone 7 units are all in the higher price ranges, unlike Android and Symbian that compete in a wider market.

The Windows App store is doing better, with now 7,000 apps available and growing at 100 apps per day. It will be interesting to see that growth can accelerate, but it looks like 50,000 by the end of the year seems very feasible.

You have to really give credit to Microsoft with coming out with a Mobile OS that offers something really different from the competition in terms of the interface, which in my opinion occupies the middle ground between Android and iOS.

Windows Phone 7 owners I have talked to are happy with their phones. A good update, and the inevitably lower prices for phones that meet Windows Phone 7 specifications, might be all it needs to take off.  The market is crowded though but with Microsoft backing, this one might just make it.

Posted in: Operating Systems,Software and Applications