Windows Phone 7 to Sell 30M Handsets by End 2011

Redmond-based software giant Microsoft announced back in February the launch of a new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, expected to help it regain the market share it has been losing lately in the smartphone segment. And “expected” seems to be the right term to use here, since the latest reports around the web suggest the company would be able to target sales of around 30 million Windows Phone 7 handsets by the end of 2011.

During the ReMIX event, Microsoft unveiled a slide that shows IDC predictions for the said number of 30 million Windows Phone 7 devices being sold before the end of the next year, a recent article on mobiletechworld reads. One thing that is certain is that the number seems to be pretty high, especially considering the fact that the new mobile operating system is not present on the market yet, and that it should face tight competition from other platforms when it lands, including Google's Android and Apple's iPhone.

Smartphones have been gaining more and more traction on the market lately, and the forecast is that they should account for about 40 percent of the entire handset market in 2011, up from only 14 percent in 2010. Based on this great increase provisioned for the entire smartphone market, Windows Phone 7 indeed has great chances to sell a large number of devices, but it still remains to be seen what the first impact to the public will be.

Various details on Windows Phone 7's features and capabilities started to emerge ever since Microsoft introduced the OS back in February (and even before that), and many users have been greatly disappointed for the lack of some functionalities currently available in Windows Mobile. Moreover, Android and iPhone are gaining up pace on the market, with the former expected to become the second mobile OS in the world in three years, and some suggest that Microsoft might have lost the train, even if Windows Phone 7 marks a switch in its approach to the mobile environment.