Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business Senior Vice President, Andy Lees, has written a letter to all Windows Mobile Partners, thanking them for helping to make Windows Mobile such a successful product.

Today, more and more competitors are jumping into the smartphone market or announcing upgrades, with features we delivered to customers years ago. Overall, we all benefit from the increased attention on everything that a smartphone can do and the difference it can make in people’s lives. But ultimately, it is your commitment to Windows Mobile that’s helped shape our success. Our shared desire to help people do more with their phone the way they choose, and our ongoing focus to deliver experiences that delight our mutual customers forms the foundation of our continued success together.

I look forward to continuing this adventure with you.

Some interesting statistics included in the letter:

• 20 million Windows Mobile licenses sold this year
• 150 different phone choices
• 160 mobile operator partners around the world
• 18,000 applications
• last quarter our year-over-year unit growth alone was greater than sales of Apple’s iPhone

Many of the bloggers and iPhone fans out there will have you think that Windows Mobile is a total failure. That hardly seems like reality at all.