Microsoft admits using 'inaccurate' Windows Phone 7 forecast

Microsoft acknowledged on Friday that it used an inaccurate number to represent research company IDC's sales forecast for the upcoming Windows Phone 7 platform.

During a presentation at the ReMix conference in Paris this week, Microsoft showed a slide that said IDC had forecast 30 million Windows Phone 7 devices would be sold by the end of 2011. The MobileTechWorld blog posted a photo of the French-language slide.

As it turns out, IDC had said no such thing about the future operating system, on which many observers believe Microsoft's mobile-phone future depends.

Instead, the research company forecast 2011 sales of 32 million devices running all Windows mobile operating systems. This includes expected sales of devices with Windows Mobile 6.5, which is already on the market. IDC has not given any sales estimate for Windows Phone 7, which Microsoft has said will be available in the fourth quarter.

:story: Full story: Computerworld