Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 (WP7) OS has been well received in Germany with all operators reporting demand to be much higher than anticipated. O2 Germany has admitted that it has sold its entire stock of HTC HD7 handsets after selling around 80,000 within days of WP7 becoming available.
Vodafone Germany has also confirmed that it has pre-orders for the HTC HD7 handset that are "higher than expected," and has already placed orders for more of the HTC phone.
Deutsche Telekom (DT) and E-Plus are also said to be experiencing similar consumer enthusiasm for WP7-based handsets. DT has stated that it has higher than anticipated pre-orders for both the HTC 7 Mozart and the Samsung Omnia 7, while E-Plus has confirmed that it has placed additional orders with LG for the Optimus 7 handset for delivery by the middle of this month.
This overall shortage of WP7 handsets has, according to reports from Taiwan, been caused by European operators believing that WP7 would not attract widespread consumer demand. Their opening order levels, claims a manufacturing source, were based upon initial sales being driven by curious early adopters and loyal Microsoft customers.
Separately, HTC has confirmed that its 7 Pro handset would become available to European operators early next year, and not, as was stated previously, to Sprint in the US. The 7 Pro is HTC's only WP7 handset with a Qwerty keyboard.
Despite these early signs of success, Gartner has poured cold water on the long-term outcome for Microsoft in the smartphone OS market. The research firm said that, while WP7 is expected to bump the company's worldwide market share from 4.7 per cent in 2010 to 5.2 per cent next year, Microsoft's share will ultimately decline to just 3.9 per cent by 2014.
For more:
- see this Phones Review article
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