Steve Ballmer : Windows Phone Sales Have Quadrupled
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 addition, he said the Windows Phone Store now offers more than 120,000 apps, and that it will soon have “46 of the top 50 apps that people use.”
Those aren’t bad results for a product that launched only a month ago, and Ballmer’s comments must surely have sounded encouraging to Microsoft shareholders, for whom the poor performance of the Windows Phone division has been a longstanding gripe.
Competing with Android and iOS is no simple task. Apple is a pioneer in the smartphone space that has demonstrated a blend of persistent innovation, and recently, price flexibility in its smartphone line to reach several socioeconomic demographics. At the same time, Android has taken on the position in the smartphone market that Windows has long enjoyed in PCs: the low-cost, volume leader that also has the ability to sell high-end devices to enthusiasts.
According to Microsoft, demand for Windows 8 PCs and tablets is enormous; the data, however, shows a 21% decline for Windows PCs over last year (including tablets, which were practically non-existent), and according to analysts the Windows 8 tablet market is “virtually non-existent.” Again, until we hear from OEMs reporting actual sales data we won’t know for sure. We’ll also likely hear how many Surfaces were sold when Microsoft issues its next quarterly results. Either way, it will be spun into a web of success: Ballmer is good at that, and we love an underdog.
