Microsoft's first-day sales of Windows Phone 7 smartphones could have totaled 40,000 units, according to a report on TheStreet.com.
Microsoft may have sold 40,000 Windows Phone 7 smartphones
during the first day of sales, according to TheStreet.com. That number
reportedly came from "a market research source who tracks phone sales."
Windows Phone 7 officially hit store shelves Nov. 8, offered
on both AT&T and T-Mobile. AT&T is offering the Samsung Focus and HTC
Surround for $199 with a two-year contract, while T-Mobile's device, the HTC
HD7, retails for the same price with data-plan. Microsoft hopes its
next-generation smartphones will allow it to reclaim market-share ground lost
over the past several quarters to the Apple iPhone and Google Android devices.
"Mondays aren't great launch days," Michael Cote, an
industry strategist with the Cote Collaborative,
is quoted as telling TheStreet. "They poured all that cash into it but they lost track of
the fact that Fridays or Saturdays are the best launch days."
An
AT&T spokesperson reportedly told the Seattle Times that
customer lines for Windows Phone 7 had formed "in some of our markets across
the nation." In San Francisco, however,
CNET's Ina Fried and
Josh Lowensohn described lines at a local AT&T store not for the
smartphones, but for a free Microsoft-sponsored concert headlined by Maroon 5.
Representatives at an AT&T store in midtown Manhattan
told
eWEEK that Windows Phone 7 devices were still in stock.
"We'd need to confirm the number but given the amount of
money Microsoft is putting into the phone, the sales expectations for initial
day sales would be much higher, at least triple digits," Rob Enderle, principal
analyst for the Enderle Group, wrote in a Nov. 10 e-mail to eWEEK. "Now there
have been issues getting all of the phones on shelves and I think we should
wait until the fourth quarter numbers are in before drawing conclusions, but
this is not a strong start."
Early reports indicated strong Windows Phone 7 sales in
international markets, although British media outlets hinted at supply
shortages for U.K. carrier Orange. "We will be launching with limited amounts
of both our Windows Phone 7 devices, the HTC 7 Mozart and the Samsung Omnia 7,"
a carrier
representative wrote in an e-mail to Mobile Today. "We are, however,
anticipating that our competitors could be in a similar situation."
Windows Phone 7 supplies in the United States could be similarly
affected.
"The cause may not be a demand problem," Enderle added. "It
may be a combination of folks waiting for the phone they want from the carrier
they have, a general shortage and folks following the typical advice from
reviewers to wait until any initial problems are worked through."
Microsoft did not respond to eWEEK's request for
comment by press time.
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