Numbers for Microsoft's new mobile phone sales projections are ricocheting around the echo chamber of the tech blogosphere Friday and research firm IDC wants to set them straight.

Microsoft plans to start selling a new version of its mobile phone called Windows Phone 7 for the holidays. MobileTechWorld reported Microsoft expects to sell 30 million of the new phones by end of 2011, based on a slide shown at a ReMIX conference. The Thursday report cited IDC, the research firm in Framingham, Mass., as the source. ReMIX is a Microsoft Web developer conference where the company is courting developers to build apps for Windows Phone 7.

I talked to Will Stofega, a wireless industry analyst at IDC Friday, and he said the numbers are not from IDC. "We don’t know who used it and where it came from. It’s kind of disturbing," Stofega said. Also, he said, "We're really pissed." And, "No one ever called to see if this was a mistake that someone made."

IDC forecasts mobile phone shipments based on operating system, and does not break out specific devices such as Windows Phone 7, Stofega said. When it forecasts the Microsoft shipments, he said, it includes past operating systems such as Windows Mobile 6.5, as well as Windows Phone 7.

Here are IDC's projections for phone shipments, based on operating system, in the year 2011. The projections were made in March:

Microsoft, including Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Phone 7: 32 million

Apple iPhone - 36 million

Google Android - 42 million

Stofega said these are shipments projected for 2011, not the number of handsets already sold and in use.

Here is a screenshot below of MobileTechWorld's story below with the slide in question.

Update 5:02 p.m.:

Microsoft just released a statement saying the slide was wrong. "This slide was inaccurate, and intended to represent an analyst’s assessment of the market opportunity. We have not provided any sales forecasts for Windows Phone."

From Pri0