Microsoft's Mobile Division is Immobile

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I'm picturing what it must be like at Microsoft HQ in Redmond, Washington, these days. First, consider the Xbox divison that has sold more than 10 million Kinect gaming systems since its launch last Fall, making it the fastest selling consumer electronics device ever. Then, you have the Windows 7 team that appears to have finally redeemed the franchise after the long national nightmare known as Windows Vista. With such recent successes, it must be an ongoing Mardi Gras at their end of the campus.

And then there's the mobile division. I'm guessing its the sound of crickets coming from their cubicles. As we say in the South, bless their hearts.

There's a new report out from Gartner this week that a "makes-me-dizzy-when-I-think-about-it" 428 million mobile devices sold worldwide in the first quarter of this year alone.  That's a 15 percent jump from a year ago at the same time.

Wow! Four hundred and twenty-eight million mobile devices sold in three months.

Er uh, just 1.6 million of them were Windows Phones, however. (Reet! Reet! Yup, crickets.)

The news was not good for Nokia either. That same study shows its market share is at its lowest since 1997 and down 5.5 percent from a year ago.

Bottom line: until that new Microsoft-Nokia marriage starts bearing fruit, both companies kind of have their ox in a ditch. Gartner predicts both will get some traction next year when that happens. In the mobile market, however, a year is a long, long time.

Will it be too late? Your thoughts!

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio