Microsoft has announced that 1.5 million handsets powered by Windows Phone 7 have been sold and sales are continuing to climb. This is actually good news, and Microsoft has apparently admitted that the sales numbers are in line with what they expected.

While 1.5 million handsets sold in six weeks might be nothing to get too excited about, actually for the Windows Phone 7 being a new OS it is better than many analysts expected. Analysts we spoke with indicated that the initial slow sales of the Windows Phone 7 handsets were a big concern, but it now seems that Microsoft is gaining some ground.

While sales momentum continues to build, developers are starting to get more engaged in building applications for the platform. Microsoft claims that 18,000 developers are working with the platform and currently 4,000 applications are already available.

The news might not be the kind of numbers that people were looking for, but the simple fact is Microsoft is moving in the right direction for once in the smartphone space.