Kevin Turner (Microsoft photo)

For some reason everyone is making a big deal today about Microsoft's Kevin Turner telling the Times of London that the company remains open to a search deal with Yahoo. In reality, Microsoft has been saying that for months.

But buried in the last line of the Times story is some actual news: Microsoft expects to sell 22 million copies of Windows Mobile this year.

It appears to be the first time anyone from the company has disclosed the current projection. And here's where the math gets interesting. Assuming Turner was referring to the 2009 fiscal year, which ends in June, the number would represent a 22 percent increase over the 18 million Windows Mobile units the company sold last fiscal year.

However, keep in mind that Microsoft had originally projected 20 million units in fiscal 2008, before some key hardware partners delayed their product releases and caused the company to miss its targets.

So about 2 million units that should have counted last year are being applied the current fiscal year instead. Had everything gone according to plan last year, Microsoft's Windows Mobile projections for the current year (subtracting out the units carried over) would be about 20 million. That would the same number as the company should have had last year.

In other words, it would be essentially flat.

To be clear, the Times story doesn't say whether Turner is referring to the current fiscal year (which ends June 30) or the calendar year. Microsoft declined to elaborate on his statement. However, Microsoft executives -- particularly the business execs -- refer to fiscal years as a matter of routine, so it's a pretty safe bet that Turner, the chief operating officer, was speaking in those terms.

The company's new Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system isn't expected to ship until toward the end of the calendar year, so the possible boost from that release wouldn't be reflected in numbers for the current fiscal year.

Analysts do expect the economy to take a toll on the overall mobile-phone market, but smart phones specifically are supposed to be an area of growth even in the down economy. As detailed above, I am making a couple of assumptions based on Turner's remarks, without any additional context available, so take this with a grain of salt for now. I'll update the post if Microsoft offers any further clarification.