The other day we ran an article about Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talking to USA Today regarding the iPhone. At the time, the numbers he gave didn't add up. Now with some new information they make even less sense than before.

The numbers we're looking at are where Ballmer talks about having MS software in 60-80% of the phones while the iPhone will only make up 2-3%. That statement alone is very skewed. Now Microsoft just announced their forecast for Windows Mobile sales for 2008, which is where things take an interesting new turn.

Microsoft is aiming to sell 20 million licenses of Windows Mobile in 2008. Wait a minute, isn't Apple aiming for 8 million units in 2008? I'm not very good at numbers, but Apple claims that their 8 million units will account for roughly 1 percent of the total phone sales in '08. So wouldn't Windows Mobile only account for a little over 2 percent? Suddenly 60-80% just became 2-3%.

I'm sure that Steve Ballmer was just pulling numbers out of nowhere during his interview to make Microsoft sound better, but was it really necessary? They are expecting to double the sales of their Windows Mobile next year which means that it has been selling quite well. So does this mean that they feel so threatened by the iPhone that they need to make up numbers just to make themselves feel better?

Microsoft projects Windows Mobile sales at 20 million for 2008 [via Slashgear]