Edible Apple

Less than a month ago, Microsoft VP Achim Berg disclosed that Microsoft had shipped 1.5 million Windows Phone devices to carriers. As for how many people actually purchased a Windows Phone device, well, Berg wasn’t as forthcoming.

Early last week, Microsoft released their earnings from the quarter gone by and announced that Windows Phone shipments topped two million units during the past quarter. But much like the statement by Berg, the two million figure includes phones shipped to carriers and not yet purchased by consumers.

“We’re still in the early stages,” Microsoft Senior Product Manager Greg Sullivan told All Things D this past week. “When people use this phone, they really, really like it.”

Sullivan went on to say that though sales are an integral part of measuring a product’s long term success, it’s not necessarily the best indicator of long term success in the short run.

“One of the key ways that we’ll measure success of Windows Phone is did we ship a phone people love,” he said, pointing to its customer-satisfaction data, which said that 93 percent of early customers are “satisfied” or “very satisfied,” adding, “That’s a really great number.”

That’s some weak spin right there.

If people really love Windows Phone 7, then that’s great. But a high customer satisfaction rate doesn’t mean a helluva lot if no one’s buying your product.