The first Windows Phone 8 devices from Nokia and HTC started to hit store shelves in the US earlier this month. So far, there's been no direct word from those smartphone makers, or from Microsoft, about how these new devices are doing. Today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave a little more information on sales of Windows Phone products.

Addressing the crowd at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Redmond, Washington, Ballmer said:

The Windows Phones from HTC are Nokia -- are getting rave reviews and have already been sold out in places around the world. We are working with our partners who are ramping supply, launching new markets and we're already selling four times more phones than at the same time last year.

That's certainly sounds encouraging, but the fact that Ballmer didn't actually come up with a specific sales number might still show that Microsoft didn't want to go head-to-head with the unit sales of iPhone and Android based smartphones. Ballmer also stated during his address that the Windows Phone Store now has over 120,000 apps and that the platform has most of the 50 most popular mobile phone apps.

Stay tuned for more news today from Microsoft's stockholder meeting.

Source: Microsoft shareholder meeting website | Image via Microsoft