Microsoft announced at the Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas last week that the Windows Mobile platform had a great presence on the market during the last year. It seems that about 20 million mobile devices featuring the software giant's operating system have been sold during 2008, at least this is what the company's CEO, Steve Ballmer, stated.

“I’m excited about the momentum we have… We have delivered 11 different mobile phones that have each sold a million units each, and in the past year, we’ve brought to market over 30 new Windows Mobile phones, or more than any other mobile platform in the market… and our partners have sold more than 20 million Windows Phones in the past 12 months,” said Microsoft’s CEO.

At the same time, he announced the mobile-search partnership the Redmond giant recently inked with Verizon Wireless. “Search will become a bigger part of the overall mobile experience, which makes me really excited about partnership with Verizon. We are at the start of transforming what Windows is… I’m proud of what we are delivering across the PC, in the cloud and on the phone.”

The fact that such a large number of phones featuring Windows Mobile was sold during the last year can be seen as a great achievement for Microsoft. Some people over the web think that the operating system needs a few updates to become a little more competitive. Moreover, the mobile phone market has seen the release of various operating systems lately, like Google's Android platform or BlackBerry's OS.

Although Steve Ballmer hasn't said it, his announcement regarding the number of Windows Mobile based phones sold in 2008 can be seen as a comparison made with other companies, one example being Apple, which sold more than 10 million iPhones last year.