AfterDawn: News

Verizon will not sell Windows Phone 7 devices until 2011

Verizon has said this week that it will not sell Windows Phone 7 smartphones until 2011, putting an early dent in Microsoft's plan to sell to a broad market.

Brenda Raney, a spokeswoman for the carrier, said they will support the operating system, but not this year. Despite the move, Raney says: "Our relationship with Microsoft is solid."



Verizon is the most popular carrier in the United States.

One analyst believes that the announcement is certainly not a positive, but also not the end of the world. Says Michael Gartenberg of the Altimeter Group : "The more carriers and the more devices they can bring early on, the more chance they have for mainstream success, but not having Verizon will not make or break it. Look at the iPhone -- you don’t need Verizon to be successful in the U.S. in mobile. On the other hand, it would be good for Microsoft to count Verizon in as a named partner early on."

Microsoft and Verizon had a recent collaboration, the Kin smartphone devices, but sales were extremely low and Verizon shipped back their excess inventory to Microsoft just two months after launch.

Globally, Microsoft has fallen to a 9.3 percent share of the smartphone market, trailing iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Symbian.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 19 Sep 2010 2:15

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• 3 comments

• i1der

  Thats a smack on the face for the kim "bad" device... They have a strong partnership with android and thats solid
  

  
  
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  19.9.2010 02:27 #1

• Mysttic

  MS should honestly expect this due to the flop that was Kin. MS seriously has some key factors to prove if it wants to make it in the cellular war. Speaking of which, I want more info on Windows 7, why is MS being so tight lipped about it?
  
  Is it really gonna awe the market, or are they ashamed of their failures.

  19.9.2010 10:27 #2

• SomeBozo

  Originally posted by Mysttic: MS should honestly expect this due to the flop that was Kin. MS seriously has some key factors to prove if it wants to make it in the cellular war. Speaking of which, I want more info on Windows 7, why is MS being so tight lipped about it?
  
  Is it really gonna awe the market, or are they ashamed of their failures. I doubt it, MickeySoft is notorious for having a great marketing machine. If you don't have great products then sell them by smoke & mirror,hype, or other such techniques? I was a testing in Windows Mobile for a while, interesting to say everyone there still used iPhones and would say 80% of all the MS employees I knew all had iPhones, and of the 20% that didn't were saying "I need to wait form my contract to end, then i'm gonna switch..."
  
  Just look at how bad the previous phones have been, quality, features, and what not, just look at Microsoft's track for phones, i would assume you can expect the same "Great Quality" (wink, wink)... Why will the new phones be any better? I'll bet you even still the Win7 phone will only come out with features now that other phones have had for a long time :) Microsoft definitely knows they are playing catch-up, and fighting to try to be relevant, i personally think for phones they are gonna eventually bow out, just need a few years.
  
  
  

  19.9.2010 13:13 #3