20 Million Windows Mobile Handsets Sold in 2008!

[Rocco Augusto]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-ces-microsofts-steve-ballmer/' target='_blank'>http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-c...-steve-ballmer/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"The numbers are in for Microsoft's Windows Mobile sales in 2008 and according to Steve Balmer's keynote at CES, they sold some 20 million sets running Windows last year. It will be interesting to see how they fare this year as the competition keeps growing with Android, WebOS, Palm's Pre, and of course iPhone. We have to tell ya though, with HTC leading the charge with a never ending flow of sweet sets, Windows Mobile will likely stay competitive throughtout his year. We've no clue what hardware's going to win this war, but we are sure that we'll hear all the Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah when they do."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1220507788.usr8.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>Windows Mobile might be slowly losing grace with the Internet crowd but it is incredibly hard to ignore Microsoft's recent sales figures of 20 million licenses sold in 2008, with 11 devices each selling one million units or more! I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that Microsoft can pull another eight figure sales year out of their hat in 2009, which shouldn't be that hard with the way HTC is turning out one sexy device after another these days. Hopefully the expected release of Windows Mobile 6.5 sometime later this year will also help Microsoft in their quest back to the top in the smartphone world.</p>

[Pony99CA]

Windows Mobile might be slowly losing grace with the Internet crowd but it is incredibly hard to ignore Microsoft's recent sales figures of 20 million licenses sold in 2008, with 11 devices each selling one million units or more!
I'm sure the naysayers and doom criers will find something negative about that, though. ;) Remember all the gloom when Microsoft didn't meet the 18 million number a ways back?

I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that Microsoft can pull another eight figure sales year out of their hat in 2009, which shouldn't be that hard with the way HTC is turning out one sexy device after another these days. Hopefully the expected release of Windows Mobile 6.5 sometime later this year will also help Microsoft in their quest back to the top in the smartphone world.
I wonder about whether another 20 million is possible, though. First, the iPhone is still chugging along. Second, Android will be hitting more phones. Third, the Palm Pre (stupid name, cool looking phone) seems to be getting great press. Finally, Microsoft has said there will be fewer phones with Windows Mobile (http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f85/microsoft-claims-less-windows-mobile-devices-future-92096.html).

The competition will make it tough, but reducing the number of models will hurt, too. They'll have to sell more units of each phone to keep up even without the competition.

I think it's possible, but it could be a tall order if Microsoft doesn't show something very cool in February.

Steve

[Rocco Augusto]

I think they could pull it off. Between 11 devices last year they managed to push out over 11 million devices. Even if they license fewer phones, if those phones are of a higher quality then what is currently on the market it stands to reason that in theory they could sell more. 2009 should be an interesting year for Microsoft :)

[Sven Johannsen]

And Apple seems to have sold half that many iPhones...total. http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/09/02/evidence-points-to-more-than-10-million-iphones-sold

So why is everyone saying WM is dead, Apple rules?

[doogald]

According to Gartner, WM sold just over 4 million in the third quarter, with their market share going down 3% in one quarter while being surpassed in market share by the iPhone for the quarter. Oh, and that article was from September 2, so there was a full four months still to go after they sold the 10 million iPhones through August. So, those two reasons are probably why.

It sounds like if WM sold 20 million devices that they were heavy on the front side of the year.

It will be interesting to see what happened in the last quarter of the year, though.