Phone makers have shipped 1.5M Windows Phone 7s

Microsoft finally has given some hint of how Windows Phone 7 is doing since it began selling in October.

Today, the company said phone makers have shipped 1.5 million Windows Phone 7s to wireless carriers. That does not mean the carriers -- in the U.S. that's AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile USA -- have sold that many phones to subscribers. The numbers do show early support from manufacturers.

In a news release, Achim Berg, vice president of business and marketing for Windows Phones, said, "We know we have tough competition, and this is a completely new product. We?re in the race ? it?s not a sprint but we are certainly gaining momentum and we?re in it for the long run."

Berg said the sales so far have met the company's expectations.

He also said more than 18,000 developers are building applications for the mobile operating system, and the marketplace now has more than 4,000 Windows Phone 7 apps.

Microsoft is spending $100 million to market the phones, and has blanketed television with "Really?" commercials making fun of people who are hypnotized by their phones. "Our campaign has been well accepted and shows that our product has been correctly targeted," Berg said.

Here is the full release from Microsoft, which includes a Q and A.

Update 12:13 p.m.

IDC analyst Will Stofega called it "a good number." "I wasn?t shocked. but I think it certainly reaffirms some of my thoughts around Windows Phone 7, that it's proliferated through a number of different devices and a number of manufacturers," he said.

The number shows there is an appetite for a different operating system, Stofega said, even in a crowded smartphone field with iPhone, Google Android and the Blackberry.

"Everyone wants to make a comparison to Apple and Apple?s a special case," he said. "Android, if you go back to when it came out, it wasn?t taking over the world, it took some time to gather momentum."

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