CNET went to check to see how sales were going on debut day for the Windows 7 Phone from HTC, the HD7, and well, things were not flying off the shelves. AT&T and T-Mobile were both selling the phones, but there were not lineups. Their informal survey of two stores in their Bay Area revealed that the stores had each sold about 10 units, not that huge. While nobody from the companies were releasing numbers, the suggestions are that Windows 7 Phones sold about 40,000 units on their first day – according to this story.

Do you think Windows 7 Phone will be a big player?

As we discussed back in February, Microsoft has been working on their Windows 7 Phone version. Well, today, they announced the first 6 phones that will be running the new operating system, and they are an interesting mix. HTC, everyone’s favorite smart phone company it seems, announced 3 phones: HTC Surround for AT&T, the HTC Pro for Sprint, and the HTC HD7 for T-Mobile. The Samsung Focus and LG Quantum will be available on AT&T, and the Dell Venue Pro will be on T-Mobile. This gives Microsoft some pretty good coverage over the larger systems, and represents a significant release for the company.

CNET has a pretty good look at the OS here. Obviously, Microsoft products are front and center, like the Bing search engine. This is a major play to be the middleman search company for millions of phone users, the fastest growing part of the search universe. This many give Microsoft a chance to catch up a bit with leader Google, who’s free Android OS is becoming more and more common.

Sort of a weird week in the world of smart phones, particularly the news that Microsoft has sued Motorola for patent infringement on certain features of their Android based phones. Yup, take that all in, that is pretty much three of the biggest players, Microsoft, Motorola, and Google all linked up in a patent lawsuit that appears to be over some pretty basic functions, such as email sync and other similar features.

There should be no surprise that there are patents in these areas, as the ideas that would seem obvious today may not have been quite so obvious when they were first patented by Microsoft. This suit comes as more and more manufactures are moving away from “paid” operating systems and more onto the free Android system offered by Google. The disruptive model of Google is apparently causing some strain in long established business relationships.

The suit was filed 10 days before Microsoft will announce major news on it’s phone operating systems.

I found this story over at Reuters about the company ISuppli that has looked into the tablet market, and has decided (somehow) that no matter what happens, Apple will continue to dominate the tablet marketplace. The most telling quote from the story is that they firm doubts that anyone will match the “overall performance experience” of the IPad, which would include it’s performance as well as the many apps and such available for it.

However, I have to say that this seems to fly in the face of the growing number of tablet style devices in the pipeline. In the mainland Chinese market, many companies have already developed knockoffs of the ipad running all sorts of different operating systems, and as the production of these devices ramps up, the costs of the components continues to drop.

Major players such as Microsoft and Google are both on track to have various companies using their operatings systems on tablet devices, especially as 2011 rolls around. Micorsoft may be a very strong competitor in the business marketplace, and Google’s ever expanding Android operating system continues to see huge improvements in it’s app offerings. It is very likely that within a couple of years, there will be little difference in Apps between Apple and other companies.

While Apple may enjoy the first mover position, they are very likely to be facing stuff competition. The real question is the actual size of the tablet marketplace, which may be in it’s infancy, similar to what happened when the original Palm Pilot style devices came out. Almost all of the players from that initial market have fallen to the wayside, and the devices have morphed into the smart phones we know today. Perhaps today’s tablets are nothing more than a step towards something much more useful and robust.

While RIM continues to dominate the US market with more than 40% of the phones out there, Android has been coming on strong. At 13% of the market, Android phones are starting to put pressure on Microsoft phones (at 13.2%) and even Apple (at around 24%). The Android increase is 4% in a short period of time, even as Apples was releases the IPhone4. This is a very strong showing for the Google operating system

See more of the numbers here

I found this article from Reuters about the move to lower price smart phones, and found it to be very interesting, especially as it speaks about ZTE, a phone company from China that hasn’t been seen as much under it’s own name in the west. They are aiming for a $100 – $150 smart phone, and many people seem to think this is where the market will end up. The price of the chips is dropping, the price of the screens is dropping, and with cheap or even free operating systems to work from, these phones are now more than possible.

Nokia, which has also been not quite on the top of the smart phone market so far is also agressively looking at this market, and aims to get a smart phone to market before the end of the year at a price well under 100 Euros. That would certainly stand much of the market on it’s ear. It would also potentially put pressure on both Microsoft and Apple. Apple is often the premium price product in the marketplace, and would seem to have the most to lose against a retail market that appears to be above their unit costs.

Read the full story here.

Microsoft did Monday what has been speculated a month ago about the Pink phone, releasing the brand new Kin 1 and Kin 2 phones into the marketplace. The Kin 1 is what was pictures last month as the Pink phone, and the Kin 2 is a more traditional slider style phone with a few twists. The real key in all of this is Microsoft moving aggressively into the social networking market for phones with the Kin 1, and a little more serious but still social Kin 2. Kin 1 is a rounded slider phone with a nicely done keyboard that is intended for heavy texting and social network updating. It also has a 5MP camera, full wireless inclusing 802.11 b/g, and a 2.6 inch touch screen Kin 2 is the more traditional slider, with a larger 3.4 inch screen, stereo sound, 8MP camera, and more potential for storage (up to 8gig).

Check out the Microsoft Kin Site for more info.

According this story at Gizmodo, as well as writeups at ARS Technica, it looks like Microsoft is going to hit the market with Verizon on a new mobile phone called the Pink. I have to say that Microsoft isn’t exactly great on names, adding Pink to Zune in their list of 4 letter forgettable.

While some suggest that it is a windows 7 mobile phone, the interface apparently does not look like Win7. The phone in the example is a turtle style slider phone, with a nice looking keyboard, and the phone seems to be aiming at the social networking / texting market, which is pretty hot at this point.

Fast growing cell phone manufacture HTC is hedging their bets and making sure they don’t miss either side of the phone markets. To that end, they announced that they will be a supporter of the new Microsoft Windows 7 Mobile, while continuing to build and sell many Google Android phones.

I would appear to be a wise move, as it means that they will be able to handle any market shift between the phone types. It also means that they don’t have to always directly compete with the Google phones with their own products, and expands their potential market.

Microsoft is running as fast as they can to keep up in the wireless phone and mobile market, which is quickly getting dominated by Apple and Google Android phones. Even though Microsoft was one of the first movers in the market originally, they have not been able to keep up. With the announcement of Windows 7 Phone, they are attempting to get back in the game, and get more into the consumer / entertainment market, it seems.

The OS is based on a widget sort of layout, looks very much like Windows 7 in font and display, and appears pretty easy to follow along with.

Check out the story here, and also a nice review on ARS Technica