Microsoft is predicting that the Windows Phone 7 handsets will be an amazing success, to the tune of 30 million devices sold by the end of 2011. Microsoft’s aspirations for WP7 devices was revealed during a slide presentation that the software giant gave at ReMIX which was held in Paris, France.

Contributing to the success of WP7 will be the growth of the smartphone industry which will rise from 14% this year to 40% next year. Although the numbers do sound good, Microsoft will face strong challenges from the usual two suspects. It’s predicted that the Android phone market will continue to grow and currently, 100,000 handsets based upon the open source OS are now shipping on a daily basis.

Apple is the other contender in this market, having shipped 51.2 million iPhones since 2007 and it’s possible that 40 million iPhones could ship this year due to a couple of reasons including a possible CDMA version, a discounted iPhone 3GS and a possible iPhone 4G coming soon.

Via: Electronista