Ballmer on Windows Phone 7: 5,500 apps, updates coming, Verizon and Sprint in first half of 2011
Speaking at his company's CES keynote, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer let go several pertinent facts about the Windows Phone 7 operating system. For starters, the much anticipated WP7 software update …
Context & Ripple Effects
Windows Phone 7 arrived in late 2010 after a long gestation — Ballmer had been promising a Windows Mobile 7 successor since early 2009 — but the launch was soft: Microsoft reported initial sales of just 40K units in early November, cushioned internally by handing 89,000 of its own employees WP7 handsets.
The CES keynote is Microsoft's attempt to reset that narrative with three numbers and a promise: a 5,500-app catalog, a software update in the works, and — critically — CDMA carriers Verizon and Sprint joining in the first half of 2011. The syndicated framing elsewhere the same day argued the platform's fate may hinge on games, which fits Ballmer's parallel pitch that Xbox is now an entertainment hub spanning TV and Windows devices rather than a console.
First-order effects
- Verizon and Sprint customers get their first Windows Phone 7 hardware options in H1 2011, doubling the US carrier footprint beyond the AT&T and T-Mobile launch partners.
- Developers now have a 5,500-app store to sell into on day one of the CDMA expansion, and a promised update gives them a near-term feature target.
Second-order effects
- Verizon's rumored iPhone domain purchases point to an Apple handset landing on its network around the same window, meaning WP7 would compete for the same premium smartphone shelf space and subsidy dollars on the very carrier Microsoft is courting.
- The update cadence forces rival platforms to keep shipping features on schedule too — the SelectStart line about games hinging suggests Xbox Live integration becomes the differentiator carriers market against Android and iOS bundles.
Third-order effects
- If the carrier-broadening-plus-update pattern holds, smartphone platform viability gets judged publicly on two metrics Microsoft chose to lead with — app count and distribution breadth — pressuring every OS maker to seed catalogs fast or cede the third-slot position.
The trend: Smartphone competition is consolidating into an app-catalog-and-carrier-distribution arms race, where a third platform survives only by expanding carrier coverage faster than its app gap widens.