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John Sun, in his always interesting Mobile Analyst Watch Blog, has picked up a most interesting story in Bloomberg of Microsoft winning a deal for 500,000 Windows Mobile devices to be manufactured by HTC for the U.S. Census Bureau.

This story is a perfect example of why, with all the faults some may find with Microsoft Windows Mobile, this OS will evenually dominate the "smartphone / mobile device" OS war. And this is a big deal. To put it into perspective, Palm's Treo models added 564,000 users while RIM forecast it added 620,000 to 630,000 BlackBerry users last quarter. That's worldwide. With this deal, HTC continue their rocket-ship growth. I tell you, if I was living in Seattle and had experience with partnerships with telecoms, I'd be trying to get a job with HTC.

Source: Mobile Analyst Watch, Bloomberg

Wow, that is big. I like the numbers you quite for the Palm Treo 700w just being available in the US while the BlackBerry users is worldwide. I'll be interested to see the numbers if and when the Treo with Windows goes GSM.

Palm does not break out the numbers by model. That means that all Treo's sold add to about 564,000 units. However, we can assume a large proportion of them are 700w devices.