Windows Phone 7 to a Crawling Start

Submitted by lalit on November 11, 2010 - 11:56pm.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 was officially launched last Monday in US and reports are that Microsoft is spending about $500 million in advertisements for the launch. However, if initial sales are any indication those dollars are currently going to waste. Analysts are estimating about 40,000 Windows Phone 7 handsets were sold on the launch day and the demand hasn’t picked up after that.

After seeing the initial reports BGR decided to reach out to 15 AT&T stores in New York City, Miami, and Chicago to get an idea of what Windows Phone 7 sales are like. The stores reported Window Phone 7 sales as follows:

  • Store 1: “They are not flying off the shelves, people are being super cautious.”
  • Store 2: “Sold more than a few!”
  • Store 3: “Doing okay, third one was delayed due to manufacturing.”
  • Store 4: “Store sold 10 since Monday.”
  • Store 5: “Sold 4 yesterday in-store; the Samsung Focus is much more popular than the others.”
  • Store 6:  ”They sold really well”
  • Store 7:  ”Sold 2 since launch.”
  • Store 8: “Sold 4 total.”
  • Store 9: “Only have sold 1 since it came out; almost no interest.”
  • Store 10: “We sold 2.”
  • Store 11: “Sold one Samsung Focus.”
  • Store 12: “Between 10-15; Samsung seems much more popular than the HTC model”
  • Store 13: “Windows Phone is selling well. We’ve sold around 15 since launch.”
  • Store 14: “Sold 10 total.”
  • Store 15: “Sold a lot of them! The Samsung model is most popular because of the screen.”

Both BGR and Industry Analysts tried to put a positive spin on initial sales of the Windows Phone 7. Analyst told The Street that Microsoft normally has a slow start when they enter a new market. They cited example of initial Xbox launch and how the second generation Xbox 360 is now a big hit. On the other hand, BGR said that for a new smartphone OS 40,000 is an impressive number for launch day.

But, Microsoft isn’t new to smartphone market, as this is their seventh try. Also, 40,000 units sold means that each of the four devices launched only sold 10,000 units on average. When first iPhone was launched in 2007 it was estimated that Apple and AT&T sold 100,000 devices on launch weekend and smartphone market was 1/5 the size it is today. The most recent iPhone 4 launch Apple had over 600,000 pre-orders. Similarly, the most successful Android handset launch was Motorola Droid last year and Verizon sold 250,000 handsets on launch.