Microsoft Moves 1.5 Million Windows Phone 7 Phones

Microsoft announced today that phone manufacturers have sold over 1.5 million phones running Windows Phone 7 in its first six weeks. Sales from manufacturers though isn't necessarily the same thing as sales to consumers.Until now, Microsoft has been holding its sales of WP7 close to the vest. That doesn't mean sales are bad, but it suggests they aren't great. Microsoft was pretty eager to let us know that 2.5 million Kinect motion controllers for the Xbox 360 sold in the first 25 days of its release.

Today the Microsoft News Center interviewed Achim Berg, the Microsoft VP for Mobile Communications Business and Marketing Group. I believe having your own company's "press corps" interview you is what you do when you want to be asked a very specific set of questions so the answers can be controlled.

Microsoft is firmly behind the new mobile platform and there is good news. Carriers aren't dumb. They haven't ordered 1.5 million handsets to decorate their shelves. The phones are moving, we just don't know how fast. Microsoft's application store has over 4,000 apps in it, which is a feat that took Android's store five months to achieve. Analysts are projecting that the Windows Phone Marketplace will be the third largest by mid-2011, surpassing the stores of WebOS, RIM and Symbian, all of which will be at least two years old by then.

I am hoping that when Microsoft reports its second quarter results ending December 31, 2010, we'll get some solid numbers on how sales to consumers are going.