back to article Microsoft claims Windows Phone sales up 300%

Speaking at the company's annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer waxed enthusiastic about Windows Phone 8, claiming sales were off to "a great start." Without citing any exact numbers, Ballmer said Redmond is selling four times as many Windows Phone devices than at this time last year. In …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Androgynous Crackwhore
    FAIL

    400% of nothing

    Now where's my calculator...

    Well done Ballmer

    1. LarsG

      So they sold...

      Four phones this week, a record!

      1. hplasm
        Devil

        Re: So they sold...

        "I said- you buy one, get three free!"

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 400% of nothing

      A very lame and predictable response...

    3. Tim 11

      400% of nothing

      http://xkcd.com/1102/

    4. N13L5
      FAIL

      Re: 400% of nothing

      Probably counting what they've stuffed into the channel, not what actually sold to customers...

      Add an army of paid pro-Windphone8 forum posters, from Engadget to Phonearena, in the hopes to sway people to buy into Micro$oft's new closed off, locked down tollbooth hell.

      Maybe that'll get a few weak minded fools to break down and buy the phone with the garish tiles for the color blind...

  2. Tom 35

    Wow

    So at launch with all the shipments to carriers and fanboys they outsold one year old Phone 7 that was rotting in the shops. It would be amazing if they didn't move more, but lets see them keep it up over time.

  3. Christian Berger

    The return rate will be interesting

    I mean how many people buy a Windows 8 Phone and believe it can run Windows applications?

    1. Thorne

      Re: The return rate will be interesting

      The answer is too many

    2. James O'Brien
      Coat

      Re: The return rate will be interesting

      Well as for the return rate I expect it will end up being around the same as the increase in sales. Though truth be told I know a couple people with a Windows Phone 7 and its actually not a bad looking phone and OS from what little I have seen of it. Still wouldn't buy it though.

      /Mines the one with the droid in the pocket

    3. Mark Allread

      Re: The return rate will be interesting

      Surely utterly no-one. Who the hell thinks they're going to be able to install their copy of Photoshop onto their phone?

  4. AlbertH
    FAIL

    Returns

    My spy in the local branch of a mobile phone retailer says that they can't GIVE AWAY Windows phones of any kind. They had a recent promotion that "gave" a Windows phone "free" with a £15 per month tariff and they had exactly one enquiry (and the prospect left with a Samsung on O2!).

    300% of virtually nothing is still virtually nothing!

    Interestingly, they can't sell Apple phones against the higher end Samsungs and HTCs - nobody wants them any more (except the gullible fanbois). Android is seems as "slick" and "trendy" and having "lots of free apps"...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Returns

      Same here. I work ina T-Mobile (EE) store, and message from up high is to push Lumia onto unsuspecting punters.

      99% of punters are FAR too wise for this, they know they don't want Windows Phone because they don't walk into phone shops blind, they have spoken to a tech friend/family member, who all advise to steer well clear of Windows Phone and/or Lumia.

      It's also interesting how many non-techie customers we get that actually know what Android is, and what it means to them (ie. their apps and content they already bought will carry on working).

      Android to them, is the the Windows, the defacto standard.

    2. Robert Grant
      Angel

      Re: Returns

      That might be because they were giving away an old WP7 handset, and people probably fall into one of two categories: 1) I'm a consumer who hasn't heard of WP, I won't buy one, or 2) I'm a consumer who's interested in the new Windows Phones, I don't want an old one.

      Just a thought. Feels pretty lonely to be one in the WP comments sections on here :)

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Returns

      Android is seems as "slick" and "trendy" and having "lots of free apps"...

      Really?

      Or is that your Apple and Windows hating bias showing through again?

      As for me, I don't have any of the "Smart" phones. For me good signal and battery life ranks way above angry birds or twatbook updates.

      I have an android tablet, because it was cheap, and the app's to say the least are average and the only reason so many are free is because they are paid for by ad's. I have a Windows pc, because it runs what I need to run (fuck off before you say Linux can do everything because it can't, get opver it) and I've used Mac and they are good bit's of kit, but I don't want to pay the high prices.

      So as I've said before, you buy the device to do what you want it to do.

    4. Bob Vistakin
      Happy

      Re: Returns

      How puzzling no-one wants a NoWin (Nokia Windows) handset. Well, microsoft might have gone all shy and cute when it comes to sales figures but Google sure won't have, and I've a feeling this coming Christmas is going to be very, very special indeed.

  5. Richard Plinston

    Redmond ?

    > Redmond is selling four times as many Windows Phone devices

    That doesn't make sense. Redmond doesn't sell 'Windows Phone devices' does it? Is it just the OEM phones that are being sold out of Microsoft stores ?

    They probably have 4 times as many shops this year, or maybe they didn't sell phones in their stores last year.

    What Microsoft sells is licences, not devices. Perhaps they have sold 4 times the number of licences to OEMs than they did 12 months ago. That wouldn't be surprising as all the OEMs have to buy blocks of licences before they can attempt to sell any devices.

  6. P. Lee

    Remind me again

    Why does MS want a phone?

    "Selling stuff for a profit" is what businesses do, but why does MS feel the need to run its own phone OS rather than write exchange clients or whatever for android and apple?

    Why not just strip android of the google proprietary stuff and add bits for their own ecosystem? Or just add bits for their own ecosystem to certified android systems.

    With the nexus 4, it seems the fat profits are about to drop out of the handset market. I think I'd have gone for the tablet market first and then offered a phone as a sideline. Tablets are more flexible and closer to MS' home ground. Tablets probably have fewer app requirements because they don't travel as much and therefore are less likely to have small "local" apps which a phone needs to be successful.

    Having said that, we might soon be at the point where everyone is carrying a not-so-thin client in their pocket and I doubt MS wants that to be running linux.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Remind me again

      It's obvious. The iPhone came first. Microsoft couldn't have copied the iPad first, because it didn't yet exist then outside of an Apple lab.

      1. Mark Allread
        Facepalm

        Re: Remind me again

        The iPhone came first? Do people really believe this? Do you also think that Sky invented the PVR and that football didn't exist before the Premiership?

  7. Adam 1

    so

    6 more sold. Keep up the good work guys.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    oh, look

    Every comment so far by people accusing MS of lies. How very tedious.

    I remember when you could actually discuss IT on these forums of the IT news web site.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: oh, look

      50% or more of the posts on here are from Google shills.

    2. Pet Peeve
      FAIL

      Re: oh, look

      Saying the statistics are meaningless and lying are two different things.

      If they had good numbers, they'd give them. They don't (it's probably to early to know anyway), so they resort to statistics.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    how about a post which says...

    How about a refreshing post which says:

    hmm, this is interesting.. it looks like the MS platform is starting to take shape and evolve from its v1 (which in effect WP7 was!) form.

    SFW that driod and iphone are still 1 and 2 from a market perspective and have 6 trillion apps of which 99.999% are fart apps, looks like we have something which is starting to evolve and providing us with some more choice.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thats what you get when you stick yr greedy mitts in ALL the pies

    No time to focus on your core..

    O. fuckin S.

    On the "COMPUTERS" and the "MOBILE COMPUTERS"

    Don't make me Bing that shit for you

    1. Bob Vistakin
      Devil

      Bing? Time to kill two birds with 1 stone, and ruffle a few feathers in the bargain. Seems some folks round here are desperate to rewrite microsofts evil ways out of history. Well, lookie here, its time to bring up the old favourite again and ponder why this article hasn't been taken down or changed - it's the official word from Google after all, and has been up unchanged for fast approaching 2 years.

      http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/microsofts-bing-uses-google-search.html

      Now understandably, there's no end of writhing and embarrassment from the microsoft apologists at being caught red handed with such a howler, and they usually reply with shedloads of smart assed reasons why it isn't so, but, as it makes crystal clear in as deep into the article as the second sentence "However you define copying, the bottom line is, these Bing results came directly from Google."

      1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

        Ah yes Bob, your old favourite article of the trick where Google gamed the system to wrongly associate some terms on someone else's search engine. I presume, if Google have a feature in Chrome where it can report back your search results 'to improve your experience' then the same trick could be done the other way. Unless Chrome won't allow other search engines.

        Personally I prefer Firefox, due to inertia really. Chrome, FF and IE all seem to be about equally good nowadays. Anyway, I can't be bothered to check.

        Anyway, yawn. There are plenty of things MS have done to be genuinely annoyed about. Surely you must be able to think of some that are actually relevant...

        How come you haven't got a badge by the way? You must have put in 100 posts in the last year, surely?

        1. Bob Vistakin
          Big Brother

          I am as elusive as the wind, yet as eternal as the truths I speak.

          1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
            Trollface

            So by not telling the truth, have you just made your life shorter (if you can do subtraction from eternity)?

            I shall try to resist the temptation to make a comment along the lines of 'as elusive as the perpetrator of the wind in a crowded lift'...

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Microsoft claims Windows Phone shipments up 300%

    "Microsoft claims they have stuffed store backrooms with 300% more Windows Phone than they managed to stuff into store backrooms this time last year.

    They are also in the process of digging a 300% bigger hole outside Salo to bury all those unsold Lumias in.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Microsoft claims Windows Phone shipments up 300%

      LOL, given how difficult it is to get a Lumia 920 are you really saying they're sitting around on a shelf not selling?

      "Limited stock of Black, White and Red arriving December 5th. RED AND BLACK STOCK ALL PRE-SOLD."

      http://www.clove.co.uk/nokia-lumia-920

      "Stock Expected In 5 Days"

      http://www.expansys.com/nokia-lumia-920-black-236807/

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        Re: Microsoft claims Windows Phone shipments up 300%

        Wow, it must be good if you can't buy them....

        #FAIL. Never heard of the Nintendo Wii?

  12. Jonathan 29
    Meh

    budget phone?

    I was looking at Windows Phones recently. I think the tiles make for quite a good interface for a simple smartphone. They just need to being some good budget Win8 phones to market. I think the premium end is a bit ambitious really and it is a shame they missed Christmas because now I have bought the wife an Android phone.

    1. Mark Allread

      Re: budget phone?

      How did they miss Christmas? Isn't that about a month away? All these phones have been available to buy for a few weeks.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: budget phone?

      HTC 8s? or is that too low spec?

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Jonathan 29
        Thumb Up

        Re: budget phone?

        That is the first time I have heard of the 8s. Doesn't seem to be on any carrier, but Amazon have one for £240. That is not too bad. Cheers

  13. Z-Eden
    Meh

    I really want to like the Windows phone, really I do. I don't like iPhones for being far too locked down and I feel that my Android phone is tracking me in everything I do. I was looking at a Nokia as a third alternative partly to support the last few European phone maker and partly to escape Apple and Google. Everytime I see something I like from WP8, something new happens to put me off.

    Suppose I could look at getting a blackberry. However, that'd mean I'd become a rimboy...

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      I really like Windows Phone 7, I assume 8 will be better. But it's no less locked down than iPhone (with fewer available apps), and it tracks you at least as much as iOS (assuming Android is the worst which may not be fair). The disconcerting thing is that it ask permission for its tracking, so you have to agree to it quite a few times, whereas Google only sometimes do, and iOS almost not at all.

      I rather like it, because the people hub makes it a great phone for work, and I tend to use apps on my iPad rather than my phone anyway.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I too like the look of the new Blackberry OS and really hope it sets them up as the third force in mobile. They deserve better, and realistically, there only is just about room for 3 players.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Revolution is here

    300% increase in sales is fantastic! The public are starting to wake up. They have grown wise and they don't like the limitations of device you get with Apple and the fragmentation and upgrade hell you get with Android.

    The only true end to end smartphone experience out there is Windows Phone 8. The new Lumias are a breath of fresh air and they have the wow factor that the iPhone had five years ago. The only people buying iPhones now are middle aged men who are trying to look cool.

    The Galaxy series was alright but it was just keeping the seat warm while Nokia got its house in order. Look at their share price they are on the way back to the top. Best build quality and some of the finest experience in the phone industry and their Windows Phone 8 powered devices will be the must have phone within two years

    1. dogged

      Re: The Revolution is here

      2/10, must troll harder.

      1. Philippe
        FAIL

        Re: The Revolution is here

        AC isn't trolling, he's working.

        He's been on Microsoft payroll for a while but he has had to go down the AC road as the previous Aliases such as John Smith, Paul Riccio, or Jonathan Moore weren't cutting it any longer.

        Chances are, he'll have just as much success with this new venture. Nobody gives a flying rat arse about Microsoft any longer, and no amount of forum stalking is going to change that.

        cheers

        1. PLASTIC_
          Stop

          Re: The Revolution is here

          Yes, it has becoming quite obvious that M$ is paying for comments in various tech sites, forums and even YouTube. these paid people only say that Lumia and Windows Phone are the best things ever. just pure propaganda, no arguments. well, they are spending their US $1,5 billion marketing budget for the new OS in a very efficient way. The unreal amount of 5 stars Lumia 920 reviews in Amazon is ridiculous too. the bad is that some people are now realizing.

          and yes, M$ has done something like this in the past:

          http://www.infoworld.com/t/applications/microsoft-pays-wikipedia-edits-043

          http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/23/AR2007012301025.html

    2. RyokuMas
      FAIL

      Re: The Revolution is here

      Deary deary me... this is the sort of thing that give the Android-jihadists ammunition...

      Similar to posted earlier - "I remember when you could actually sanely discuss the merits and flaws of competing systems on an IT forum..."

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The Revolution is here

      Brilliant post! I needed a bloody good laugh after the piss-poor morning I've had dealing with shonky MS ODBC driver code not working on our DBs!

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Loads of predictable crap here posted by the Fandroids. About how their mate who works in a phone shop says they can't sell WinPhones etc.. It's almost as bad as Ali G and "me mate Dave says...".

    The Nokia 920 has sold 2.5 million in 20 days. Given this is supposedly a dead platform being supported by a dead phone maker I would say that is quite impressive. Also impressive given there's a 3 month exclusivity deal on it and many people who want one haven't been able to get one. Luckily that deal ends in January.

    Then there's the 820, Samsung Ativ S and all of the HTC phones.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      According to an article, link to PC Pro, Win Phone is up to nearly 5% of UK smartphone sales and 10% in Italy. Still nothing special, but it is growing - and percentage market share gains in a growing market are even nicer of course. Looks like poor RIM are taking the hammering from everyone.

      Whether it's enough to be a significant player is another matter, and how many of those sales are at zero (or wore) margin is also not shown. But it's way too early to declare MS dead in this market. Things can easily change, I don't think the market has stabilised yet, we've had at least 5 market leading OSes in the last decade - most of which are now dead.

      1. Bob Vistakin
        Megaphone

        Well, brace yourself then - that 5%, even if true, is as good as it gets. Android is currently on 75% and all the big Android players have timed the run up to Christmas to perfection. Apple has just fumbled everything it's possible to fumble, and at the worst possible time for them. Their relative share is falling as it is. With the astonishing quality and price of the Nexus 4, plus the Nexus 7 price cuts if we're speaking generally of Android, what do you think the market share will be after the Christmas sales figures are in? 80% is certain, 85% - 90% not beyond the realms of possibility. So who's left? Not microsoft - they can't give them away. Blackberry claim to have something by next spring.

        Game over - the rest can scrap over what Android would consider floor noise.

        1. dogged
          FAIL

          Bob thinks this is a game and he has chosen Android as his Team.

          If Android (or iOS or RIM or WP) wins, we all lose.

          1. Bob Vistakin
            Happy

            @dogged knows he is out of arguments so reverts to ad hominem attacks.

            1. dogged

              I didn't see an attack. And if any mobile OS "wins", we all lose.

              So why do people attack the ones that they don't personally buy? It's kind of tribal for what amounts to long-term self-harming.

        2. RyokuMas
          Mushroom

          Did someone fart? I think I just heard some elusive wind...

          1. Bob Vistakin
            Alert

            Crikey, that's me rumbled.

        3. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

          Bob,

          How's that time machine working for you? I'm assuming that's the only explanation for your certain knowledge of the future.

          Apple won't be crying into their beers any time soon. Even having dropped the ball they've still got a very comfortable market share, and the lion's share of the profits from the whole market. No-one else but Samsung makes much profit at all on phones. I suspect Apple may be on the downward curve, with recent missteps and cracks appearing in their media love-in, but that might just mean a small drop in sales, and a touch less profit.

          As for Android, Google make no more money out of being market leader than Microsoft do from Win Phone. The difference is that MS might make a profit sooner than Google. Would be interesting to see what happened if Google tried to charge.

          Samsung are the key. If Google fail to keep them sweet, they may abandon ship and fork Android, or go another route. Bada, write something new, make the Moblin/Meego/Maemo thing work, or even Win Phone. Can't see that happening soon, but anything can happen. Symbian collapsed incredibly quickly. This is not a stable market. Many Android users only use free Apps, so there's no penalty for moving. Apple have much better lock-in, with bigger App sales.

          Interesting times ahead for many years I suspect.

        4. The_Regulator
          Windows

          Fanboi Alerts

          My fanboi sensor went into overload as soon as I read this article, figures that the android ones would be out in droves especially on this site. BTW Lumia 920 is without doubt the best phone on the market right now in terms of hardware. Software is still catching up and it is going to take time but I want for nothing right now on my 920.

          The interesting thing I noted in the article was the decline in growth of the MS App Market. What I do not see mentioned in this article though is the fact that MS did not release the developer SDK for WP8 until right before the launch of the platform and in turn no mention of the thought that developers did not want to release new apps right before the launch of WP8 when they could not test compatibility because the SDK only works on Windows 8...I would think that the releases over the 6 months following the release of WP8 would be much more indicative of the truth vs the 5 or 6 months prior to the release but hey you journalists obviously know a lot more than I do, either that or your just a lot better at the smoke and mirrors game catering to your fanboi audience.

          Keep hating haters it's what you do.

          1. Bob Vistakin
            Trollface

            Re: Fanboi Alerts

            Hurrr hurrr hurr

            Me wanna be cooool hurr hur hur

            Me want best phone on market hurrrr

            Me want big toy bright yellow one with no apps that I don't need to rely on for making calls hurr hurr

      2. peredur

        Hmm. Nice link

        The link to PCPro is to an article entitled, "Apple and Google extend mobile lead". In other words, MS is picking up waifs and strays from Symbian and RIM - but at a lesser rate that Google and Apple. Not something that I'd be proud of, particularly, if I had responsibility for Windows phone sales.

        MS is picking up a larger and larger proportion of a rapidly shrinking pie - the bit of the market left after Apple and Google's share.

        1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

          Re: Hmm. Nice link

          The link to PCPro is to an article entitled, "Apple and Google extend mobile lead". In other words, MS is picking up waifs and strays from Symbian and RIM - but at a lesser rate that Google and Apple.

          peredur,

          Without more information, it's impossible to say. It may be that MS are simply stealing share from other losers - in a battle of the losers. It may be however that cheap £50-£100 Android phones are what's killing Blackberry and Symbian, and MS are stealing from Android in the mid-market.

          Do Blackberry even have a phone at the £450-£500 price bracket? If not, those Win Phone sales (of the Lumia 900 and now 920 could be stealing from Apple or Android. Or, in a growing market, may all be new sales, it depends on the proportion of handsets that are selling - you can't know without a better breakdown of the figures.

          I'm not saying that Win Phone is the best or that it's going to take over the market. I'm simply saying it's not dead yet. It's growing at the rate you'd expect if it was going to do really well, but equally that growth may stall at any time. I'm simply pointing out a little bit of common sense to the howling masses of the intertubes. If Win Phone goes down in flames, they can cheer happily.

          Me, I like a bit of healthy competition, I don't particularly trust Google, I think £500 is a ridiculous price for a phone (why do you think Apple and Samsung make such huge profits?), and I don't like tiny plastic keyboards. So I like my Lumia 710, my next handset will be a mid-price Android or Win Phone 8, in a year's time. Unless Apple come out with something sensibly priced.

  16. mark l 2 Silver badge

    I expect the most people buying a Windows 8 phone are buying a Nokia, not because its running Windows but because they like Nokias, the Windows 8 store my have 1000000 apps but how many of them are actually being bought and bringing money in for the developers?

    1. RyokuMas
      Unhappy

      Very true, unfortunately - I've got five games up there now, no returns of any real significance. That said, how many on other platforms are actually being "bought"?

      Of course, if another platform could produce an SDK with entry barriers as low as the XNA framework (and didn't require my having to replace all my computer hardware or shell out hundreds for licence fees), I'd certainly consider it. Especially now it looks like I've got to start all over again with C++/DirectX.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Didnt know this site was loaded with Fandroids

    Looks like most of the peeps here love the cheap plastic being offered on their GS3's and droids, hardware aside the software which is nothing less than a spyware. Most of the commenter may have never used a WP device. I have used and own Android and iOS devices but have them sidelined after getting my hands on a Lumia.

    920 being sold out the world over is because of the below and not your dumb ass comments above its because consumers are smart enough to realize it is the best darn smartphone available at the moment.

    The best camera on a Smartphone

    The best Display for a Smartphone

    The best looking Smartphone

    Only phone with Wireless Charging

    Windows Phone 8 which is currently the best mobile OS available with a nicely knit ecosystem.

    Brought to you by the pioneer in mobile telephony.

    1. Richard Plinston

      Re: Didnt know this site was loaded with Fandroids

      > The best camera on a Smartphone

      Did you not hear of the 808 ? While the 920 may use the name it has no other connection to that. Other phones have much better cameras, such as http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/29/android-phone-lumix-camera-panasonics-lumix-phone-101p-for-japan/

      > The best Display for a Smartphone

      Opinion

      > The best looking Smartphone

      Canary yellow plastic. I think not.

      > Only phone with Wireless Charging

      Palm Pre (from years ago), Galaxy 4.

      """The Nexus 4 has the circuitry to be charged by any Qi charging device. Google also has a charging orb available for sale.

      But that’s not the only smartphone platform with Qi that’s come along in the last few weeks. Both HTC and Nokia have equipped their Windows Phone 8 handsets with Qi charging. If you pick up the HTC Windows Phone 8x on Verizon, then Qi will be part of the handset."""

      > Windows Phone 8 which is currently the best mobile OS available with a nicely knit ecosystem.

      It is knitted into a net to keep you in the walled garden.

      > Brought to you by the pioneer in mobile telephony.

      If you want the actual pioneers:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones

      1. dogged
        Meh

        Re: Didnt know this site was loaded with Fandroids

        Most of this is legit but Richard is well aware that canary yellow "plastic" - polycarbonate shell if you're not being a twat - is not the only option.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like