AT&T to get 8 million Windows Phone 7 devices; So will 90,000 Microsoft employees

Fun Twitter day for rumors and Windows Phone 7 news as it looks like two big fish have bought into the next generation Microsoft OS.

The first, well, is obvious. Microsoft evidently believes in their new mobile system so much, they are giving all 90,000 employees a free phone. Nothing like that to get your own employees on board, eh?

It's even better news for MS employees, as reportedly their boss will no longer pay for their phone's service plan if it is a non-Microsoft OS (e.g. Blackberry, iPhone, WebOS), at least according to 'Business Insider'. So one hand taketh, the other giveth.

The second is less confirmed, but comes from a trusted source of a trusted source--namely Michael Gartenberg, who is a heavy when it comes to the tech world and writing on it. According to his inside person, AT&T is poised to get "8 million WP7 devices".

What exactly that means is hard to say--long term trend? Single device or multiple? We're going with the obvious and betting that they will have two maybe three Windows Phone 7 launches within a short period and combined, they expect to order 8 million.

Regardless of the details, if true, that is still a heck of a huge number to order. Now, will they sell?

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.