Microsoft predicts 30 million Win Phone 7 sales in 2011

Windows 7 Phone has hardly created the buzz of the year, but when it comes to hype, at least Microsoft is drinking its own Koolaid.
At the Microsoft ReMix event in Paris this week, Nicolas Petit regional director for the firm’s mobile division said the company hoped to have shifted 30 million Windows Phone 7 handsets by the end of 2011. Petit’s expectations were supposedly based on IDC predictions for handset sales in the coming year, although IDC has refuted it ever proffered such a number.
Update: “I think there has been some confusion about this and Microsoft has issued a correction on Friday. Also, for the record, IDC is not predicting 30 million Win 7 devices in 2011,” William A. Stofega of IDC told RCR.

30 million is certainly not a very ‘petit’ number when one considers the fact that there aren’t even any Windows Phone 7 devices yet on the market, not to mention the seemingly total lack of enthusiasm surrounding the revamped operating system.
Petit, however, was optimistic, pointing out that in France alone 85% of people still didn’t own a smartphone and that all predictions pointed to a massive upsurge in Smartphone sales this coming year – with 40% of (French?) phone sales predicted to go smart.
Mobile operator Orange will apparently be partnering with Microsoft on the deployment of Windows Phone 7 device deployments, with major efforts being put towards pushing the new operating system at the enterprise segment.
Microsoft is even said to be hoping it might outdo the iPhone in sales by offering a plethora of different devices with the OS, although what devices those may be remains to be seen.
The software giant also spent talk time at ReMix waxing lyrical about its Silverlight mobile development platform and XNA framework and announced that it would allow users to demo apps before buying them on the Microsoft Market Place.
Windows Phone 7 devices should be coming out in Autumn of this year, but whether or not Microsoft will be able to hit its rather ambitious target remains to be seen.