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.
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"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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