In early October, Microsoft had a big launch party in NYC. Steve Ballmer was on the Today Show, and coming out party for Windows 7 Phone was started.
Local AT&T dealers in my area had a handful of each unit, more than enough to meet demand, which was minimal.
LG, who joined the HTC and Samsung launch the WP7 partners, have indicated that sales were disappointing.
Although it is fashionable to blame Windows 7 Phone, it is the flagship phone that is the missing ingredient. Let's take a look at the other platform with the green guy.
It took years for Android to take off, but look no further than the droid for why it took off. It is marketing and positioning. For Verizon customers, the Android alternative to the iPhone.
What Verizon did with Motorola Droid was to create a flagship phone for the Android platform.
Outside of tech blogs and phone geeks, regular people were not talking about the Android phones. The Droid commercials changed fortunes for Android.
If you were sticking with Verizon, you probably left one of their stores with an Android phone. Until the immensely successful Droid campaign, it could have been with HTC's Droid Eris.
Sales volume has increased and so has the developer interest.
That's not to say the sale would not have been strong.
Android was placed firmly against dated OS on RIM 's BlackBerry line and the Droid ship had sailed by the time the WebOS phones hit Verizon. Let us now shift gears to go back to Windows 7 Phone launching on AT&T, which is the larger of the two carriers where you can buy a Windows phone device.
Immediately, you are in competition with the iPhone, not to mention a handful of Android devices as Samsung Captivate.
When you look at the units, there is no clear horse to come back.
Almost pundits wrote the Samsung Focus as the best of the AT&T-units, but it was just another phone from a table of phones in front of Steve Ballmer.
people do not see those commercials and think, I want that Samsung or HTC Focus Surround.
There is almost no differentiation between the two, at least from the 60 second ad clip.
They see Windows 7 Phone, which is the purpose of Microsoft's campaign.
There is no hardware that sells the platform, no flagship phone that stands above the rest.
Do not get me wrong, I think the current line of devices very well, but just how they were lost on the table in front of Ballmer, they get lost on the shelves at AT&T.
Now that Verizon will have the iPhone, the course of marketing dollars from mobile phone manufacturers be heated.
For Microsoft, they just make the OS, so they are somewhat removed from this process.
The last time they worked with Verizon was KIN and that did not work so well.
Phone Windows 7 is not KIN, but at least the marketing unit was determined.
Something they need to cooperate with the HTC, Samsung or LG to make a phone that will be worthy Verizon marketing dollars.
Verizon has an impressive lineup because of this year, so the challenge is becoming greater.
Verizon will have iPhone on February 4, 10 and large releases Android HTC Thunderbolt and still unnamed LTE compatible Samsung phones.
For the first time, AT&T has one of the hottest Android phones Motorola Atrix.
The time for a flagship Windows 7 Phone device is overdue and it may just be the reason why sales are not impressive.
No operating system, it is to deliver a Windows phone that stands out from the rest of the table.
While the table of the devices will help drive adoption over time, is the flagship phone that will get them back in the race.
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