184 Digital Wars The handset makers also sensed a lack of direction, he suggests, leaving the door open to a newcomer ­ Google. Previously, Knook suggests, the manufacturers could call him to ask for guidance. Now, he says, their attitude was `The new guy won't tell me anything because he says he needs time to go and figure out what he wants to do. So what does that mean for the device I'm about to launch? Maybe I should just go easy and not launch this device.' So, he says, `the natural by-product of all this change is that ODMs [original device manufacturers] take their foot off the gas, operators take their foot off the gas, everybody takes their foot off the gas and that's kind of what happened. It isn't whether it would have been me or anybody else. [It was] just the change.' So it was the arrival of Android, rather than the iPhone, that killed Windows Mobile. Google had flummoxed Microsoft again, this time by undercutting it. Because how do you compete with free? Apple benefited, though: during Windows Mobile's glory year ­ July 2007 to June 2008 ­ Apple sold 5.41 million iPhones. In the next July­June period, 20.25 million iPhones were sold, outselling Windows Mobile by more than 2 million.