>You're right. The problem is further up the chain. The only WP7 ads I've seen are from Microsoft or AT&T. The sales wieney has no control over that. Plain and simple, Microsoft needs to push it, not the carriers. It needs to be real ads, not product placement in TV shows.

But people rarely make purchases anymore from traditional advertising. It's more based on recommendations from people they know and people they trust. If Microsoft created more and better TV ads, I don't think they'd even get sales return on their investment. It's more about the overall platform, overall benefits and trends. If history teaches, a good comparison is the Zune.Nice hardware and Zune Pass service, but it never got more than about 3% of the iPod business after years. Same thing is happening with Windows Phone.

AT&T CEO said last week that WinPhone7 sales were very disappointing. Microsoft's smartphone market share is decreasing monthly. It will be interesting to see if and when they can reverse that trend. Having Nokia branded hardware may not change things as much as some hope or expect, since I think it's far more a platform play now and less on hardware/device branding. Windows Phone, Blackberry, and PalmOS are all in a big battle for a very 'distant' third place in the smartphone business.