The advertising campaign for Windows Phone 7 reportedly reached nine digits, but that is no guarantee of success. Market researchers reported that the first day of availability saw only 40,000 units of Windows Phone 7 sold.
By comparison, Google said that 200,000 Android phones were selling in any given day and Apple indicates that the iPhone sales rate is 270,000 a day. Still, a T-Mobile spokesperson said the Windows Phone 7 was “already receiving strong interest from our customers right out of the gate.”
Cote Collaborative strategist Michael Cote thinks that the timing, the lack of copy functions and the sheer number of models offered ultimately hurt the release. “Mondays aren’t great launch days. They poured all that cash into it but they lost track of the fact that Fridays or Saturdays are the best launch days,” said Cote. “In the phone world, our surveys show that there should be a choice between A or B [like one with a keyboard and one without].
It’s inexcusable that in the fourth quarter of 2010 you don’t have something as basic as cut and paste,” noted Cote.
Nielsen telecom analyst Roger Entner doesn’t think it’s over yet though. “It’s early in the game,” he said. “Not every product surges right out of the starting blocks. The first Android phone was not a big seller at T-Mobile. We’ll see what happens with Black Friday sales. They’ll probably cut prices like everyone else does. It’s the nature of the beast. The only one that doesn’t do promotions is Apple.”
Source: The Street
