Belfiore

Sometimes tech executives make news by answering questions directly, and sometimes it's their avoidance of questions which drive headlines. The latter scenario is what has the tech blogs buzzing today as Microsoft's Joe Belfiore, who heads the company's mobile efforts, declined repeated efforts by veteran journalist Walt Mossberg to get a sense of how Windows Phone 7 is selling since its debut one month ago.

In an on-stage interview at the Dive Into Mobile conference in San Francisco, Belfiore said that "it's just too soon to talk about numbers." Many tech blogs are translating that answer or lack of answer -- plus Belfiore's follow-up comments -- as a sign that Windows Phone 7 isn't quite hitting expectations.

Alley Insider notes that Microsoft isn't shy about trotting out numbers for Kinect or Windows 7 -- even in the early stages of the release of those products. Because of that, Jay Yarrow writes that the lack of a concrete answer suggests that "Windows Phone 7 sales are off to a slow start."

VentureBeat's Owen Thomas agrees, writing that without sales figures "Microsoft's mobile hype is all talk." That's also the analysis from TechCrunch's Greg Kumparak who notes:

"If your product is selling well, you brag about it. If it isn’t, you don’t. It’s a basic strategy, driven by the idea that talk of heavy sales in turn generates even heavier sales. It’s a bit telling, then, that Microsoft is doing their damnedest to get around having to shed any light on Windows Phone 7′s sales thus far."

For his part, Mossberg did try to pin down Belfiore on some actual numbers. A portion of the discussion is below, with Ina Fried of All Things Digital offering a play-by-play here.

Walt: How many have you sold?

Belfiore: We’re not talking about numbers yet.

Walt: Other people do.

Belfiore: We’re four weeks in. At some point we’ll get to that. “It’s just too soon to talk about numbers.”