Partners of Microsoft Corp. shipped two million handsets based on Windows Phone 7 operating systems (OS) in Q4 2010, an executive from the company said in an interview. Even though sales of Windows Phone 7 (WP7) are clearly slower than those of Google Android, the company seems to be optimistic and claims that end-users like WP7 experience.

“We are still in the early stages. When people use this phone, they really, really like it,” said Greg Sullivan, a senior product manager said on Wednesday.

Windows Phone 7 launched in Europe and the Asia Pacific region on October 21 and in the United States and Canada on November 8. Two million units in 71 days means that around 28 thousand WP7-based phones were shipped daily, well below 300 thousand of Google Android-based phones activated every day.

Microsoft remains optimistic about Windows Phone 7 as this is the brand new platform, which is not yet widely supported by third-party developers and is not very well known for consumers. Going forward the company will naturally promote the new mobile platform more aggressively, but at present the software giant seems to be satisfied with user response.

"Sales are an important measure, but for a new platform we think customer satisfaction and active developer support are more important indicators of how sales will be over the long term. 93% of Windows Phone customers are satisfied or very satisfied with Windows Phone 7, and 90% would recommend the phone to others," said Mr. Sullivan.

According to Microsoft, there are now 6500 applications for Windows Phone 7 and 24 thousand developers have signed up to build them, therefore, the platform is already becoming more or less popular among software designers.

Tags: Microsoft, Windows Phone