The good news: Microsoft sold more than 18 million Windows Mobile licenses in the last fiscal  year, which ended June 30.

The bad news: That's 2 million short of its 20-million-unit target.

Of course, it's all a matter of perspective. Worldwide, only Nokia and its Symbian OS is outselling Windows Mobile. Senior VP Andy Lees noted that Redmond's market share rose nearly 2 percentage points, to nearly 13 percent of the world smartphone market.

And Lees dumps some of the shortfall blame on device manufacturers, saying that some devices went to market later than expected. But he was mum on who the slowpokes were.

"The OEMs give us predictions as to when they'll ship the devices, and I don't want to put them in the dunk tank, if that's a phrase, by implying that they didn't stay on time. That's confidential conversations that we have."

Being as this is the sort of thing investors worry about, Microsoft stock (MSFT) was down just a tick at 11 a.m. EDT, at 26.20 a share.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

On a day when many are filled with equal parts joy and dismay on the iPhone side of life, let's not forget something important:

In terms of # of devices sold, Windows Mobile's growth over the last three months exceeded the total number of iPhones sold. Of course, that number was pretty seriously deflated by a lack of availability in the last month or so, but still: last quarter Microsoft shipped 4.5 million WM licenses -- up 1.8 million year over year to the iPhone's 1.7 million. That's some healthy worldwide marketshare right there.

That was Andy Lees point during his keynote at last week's partner conference. Lees also threw the gauntlet down when it comes to Enterprise App Development:

Nokia has -- and actually Apple, both have basic support for business productivity, Apple with their new update where they just provide very basic connectivity into Exchange, not as rich as you would get on Windows Mobile. But as far as the programming models that they provide, they really aren't robust enough for application development outside of the browser, and so for you to be able to provide application platform business solutions, certainly we provide a much richer way of doing that.

Lees also sat down for an interview with the::unwired and talked up similar points, though he did make a special note to discuss the consumer market and how Windows Mobile is going to address it better in the future.

So hit both articles up if you're tired of hearing iPhone users complain about having inactive phones, a nice antidote to today's media blitz.

Sometimes you just have to shake your head at Microsoft and sigh.

In a recent interview with the Reuters news network, Andy Lees, senior VP of Redmond's Mobile Communications side, said future versions of WinMo will focus on improving the music experience.

"One thing that Apple has leveraged on is the music scenario, and I think that that is something the operators and ourselves are partnering on."
Lees said music in cellphones was a huge business opportunity, since every year consumers bought 10 times as many music-enabled cellphones as iPods.

You can almost see Microsoft execs walking into Tuesday night's Celtics-Lakers thrashing in fourth quarter, sitting down and saying, "Hey, guys. How's it going? Who's winning?"

So, let's recap the recent MS revelations:

• We need a better OS.
• We need better mobile browsers.
• Now we need better music.

Catch the trend? We ... Need ... Better ...

Now the good news: Microsoft really is working on all of the above. Real redesigns - and not just "better" apps - are actually in the works. Let's just hope that it comes soon enough to counter the coming iPhone marketshare onslaught.

Microsoft has just published a letter to Windows Mobile partners from Sr. VP Letter from Andy Lees. In the letter, Lees lays out some of the strengths of Windows Mobile that don't necessarily get enough credit. It's worth a read to see what Microsoft is proud of and get a hint of what they're looking to focus on moving forward.

In any case, a lot of folks are reading the letter as “Microsoft trying to Steal the iPhone's thunder,” but that's not quite our take. Instead, look at it this way: there's going to be a ton of press out there for the iPhone next week. When these reporters are looking to finish out their article with a counter-point for “objectivity,” it would be helpful for them to have a quick, easily digestible letter from which they can insert the Microsoft talking point into their article. In other words - Microsoft knows they'll be getting a little bit of press in iPhone articles next week -- this is a good way to control what that message is.

Though we'll say that if you're looking for a paean to Windows Mobile that really lays out why it's a stupendous platform, we recommend our very own Triumphant Return to Windows Mobile from the Smartphone Round Robin. Also, believe it not, like Lees, we still believe that the iPhone can be a help to Windows Mobile overall.