MS letter to Win Mobile partners preempts iPhone 2.0
updated 09:40 pm EDT, Thu June 5, 2008
MS letter to partners
Apple is expected next week to unveil the 3G iPhone and related software infrastructure – v2.0 OS, downloadable apps, the official app store, and SDK – but Microsoft on Thursday issued a letter to industry partners in an attempt to dull the roar of Apple's announcements. Seattle Post-Intelligencer reveals that Microsoft wrote of its intent to sell 20 million Windows Mobile licenses, with group product manager Scott Rockfeld and Windows Mobile chief Andy Lees enforcing that their team is "on track" for the generous target.
Rockfeld assures partners "If it's short of 20 million, it's going to be a rounding error."
With a subtle nod to Apple, Lees said "We're proud that we've been able to work with you to deliver more than 40 different phones that run at 3G speeds, at prices that meet a range of customer needs -- something not all smartphones can claim."
Lees also highlighted Windows Mobile sales on devices such as the HTC Touch Diamond, in contrast to sales from Apple and RIM. Lees wrote that Windows Mobile "sold more in the previous four quarters than RIM, and in the last quarter our year-over-year unit growth alone was greater than sales of Apple's iPhone."
It is uncertain if Microsoft will try to counter the introduction of the so-called iPhone 2.0 release with a major software announcement.
so basically ...
06/05, 10:59pm reply
... All Microsoft has to offer is TALK?
So, it is their 'intent' to sell 20 million WinMo phones? That's grand.
If I say it's my intent to become emperor of China, that still doesn't make it so - though my chances are probably a bit more likely than microsoft's.
ZinkDifferent
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2005
rounding error?
06/05, 11:07pm (1 reply) reply
For MS, round error is like selling 11 million licenses, and rounding to 20...
Guest
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 1999
windows mobile
06/05, 11:38pm reply
Honestly, Ballmer could take a dump at city hall and nobody would care. Microsoft is last century.
Repeat after me: Zune
res08hao
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Joined: Feb 2008
Funny thing is...
06/06, 01:03am reply
I had to suffer through a Treo 700w, and had my eye on the Verizon XV6800. Had the iPhone not arrived, or had the XV6800 been released on time, I would have happily been using the latest WinMo - there are many improvements over the previous version.
Sadly (or happily), the iPhone made any Windows Mobile features, past or present or imagined or announced-with-no-intention-to-ever-deliver, completely irrelevant.
dogzilla
Mac Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 1999
Heh. FSJ's take:
06/06, 01:07am (1 reply) reply
Money quote: "McDonald's sells more meals than El Bulli. Nobody takes that to mean that Mickey D's is better". (Google it.)
http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2008/06/borg-points-out-that-winmo-outsells.html
dogzilla
Mac Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 1999
WWDC will roar, MS squeak
06/06, 09:46am reply
WWDC will ROAR! MS news just talk with a little squeak. And MS knows it, so does everyone else.
horvatic
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Joined: Apr 2002
Old Tactic
06/06, 11:18am reply
This press release sounds like a classic Microsoft ploy from the 1980s.
As if today some announcement from Microsoft will suddenly make the tech world grind to a halt and cause everyone wait for the "REAL thing" from Redmond.
Microsoft is so transparent at this point it's a bad joke.
JeffHarris
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Joined: Oct 1999