My problem with that, though, is that there is a relatively small amount of consumers that used Windows Mobile devices.  The predecessors to the current smartphones were not mainstream in any way shape or form.

I still think it's the carriers refusal to promote WP in their advertising or by their personel.  I witnessed again today at a T-Mobile store with a friend of mine.  We came over there to show him the Radar and all the guy did was talk up Android.  He actually said Android apps are better than iPhone apps.  When we left, I picked everything he said apart for my friend and explained to him what's going on.  Still a shame.

It's already been mentioned a few times that microsoft makes more from android royalties than anything to do with windows phone. Eventually, microsoft will realise that this is the easiest way to make money, and will just give up the effort, as more android phones would be sold that way, and therefore more royalties paid.

oh, by the way, google is about to unveil some new marketing efforts for retailers that use gps and location sensing technology to drive more sales for retailers. Basically, what it amounts to is that shoppers will get info on sales or whatever when they come near to the store. I wonder how long it will take microsoft to introduce a second rate version of this...

Since we are talking about second rate versions of existing features, how about the new "People app" on Android ICS shamelessly borrowing from Windows Phones People Hub. Or the new ICS multitasking thumbnails and swipe gestures used to close apps showing direct tribute to much beloved WebOS multitasking.

I for one cant wait to see who Google is going to borrow next... To them its all open source afterall.

You may be right in saying WinMo wasnt widespread enough to give them such a reputation, but I think Windows in general gets people to think twice. Most people have spent the last 15 years working on Windows machines , having driver issues with them, dealing with viruses...none of which are much fun. 

And I agree that carriers and people working in stores are brutal towards windows phones. I visit electronics stores frequency during my lunches at work and I have never heard anyone working at these stores say anything good about my phone. Its always...no dual core this, low screen resolution that, no cool apps...etc.  I have been convinced that I should kill myself cause my phone doesn't have LTE, despite the fact that LTE coverage in Toronto is not available other than for 5 blocks in the downtown core.

lol at the idea of google copying what i described. GOOG is a marketing company at heart, a large majority of sales comes through ads. This is just going to make them even more competitive.

This is a far as I got into the thread, so sorry if there is reduncency .

I have an iPhone 4 and have had to reboot it once in the year I've owned it.  I also have had a Galaxy S2, my favorite phone, since late September, and haven't had to reboot it once.

I personally believe it's all about OS and interface.  Choose what you like and roll with it.

They all offer positives and negatives.

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Euphoria14 said: Someone correct me if I am wrong, but how did Apple win "Best Manufacturer" when they don't manufacture their own devices?

When he was alive, Steve Jobs just imposed his hands on the stuff and he transformed water into wine, Apple users into macaques and Chinese junk into Apple HW. Now they do the same using a holy relic of him.

OTOH, at MS Ballmer imposes his armpits and transforms water into sweat, Windows users into lusers and junk into the same junk as before, plus money, cholesterol and cocaine. MS research labs are working hard looking for ways to prevent Ballmer's armpits from spoiling when he dies and preserve their thaumaturgic powers.

While the specs have been lowered, they are still a lot higher than Android hardware requirements, leading to higher entry prices. I just had a look at the available WP7 devices and their prices in my country, and the cheapest WP7 phones that appear to be somewhat popular come at about 250 Euros. That's definitely affordable, but I think the majority of people is nevertheless looking for even cheaper devices. Android Smartphones on the other hand already come as cheap as 99 Euros and considering the price they are quite feature-packed, usually having WLAN/GPS/Bluetooth/Digital Camera etc. already builtin. Their biggest downside is being slow and the display being of bad resolution etc. - but in the end that only affects comfort, you can still do almost anything with them that you can do with high-price Android phones. I think a person who is today looking to replace his old mobile but who doesn't want to spend more money than necessary will likely choose an Android device, because when looking and comparing feature lists, the cheaper Android devices will look like the best deal for the price.

And of course, WP7 has the problem of being rather late to market and simply not having a reasonable market share yet. For customers that's a clear downside, because as long as it's not sure how bright WP7's future is going to be, spending hundreds of bucks on a WP7 phone is a bit of a risk and going with the established choices seems much safer. WebOS for example really is a nice OS as well, yet commercially it failed and was abandonded, and many people who spent their precious money on those devices are probably a bit pissed now.

The fact that Windows Mobile didn't have the best reputation etc. probably is a problem too, but I don't think its one of the biggest problems. I once had a Windows mobile smartphone as well, and back at the time I didn't even think it was that bad.

I actually consider the Metro UI to be a bigger problem. The general concept might be great (I really don't know, since so far I never had a chance to try a WP7 phone), but I think many people will find the simplistic design a bit boring (or even cheap looking). One can of course say that this was a consious decision because in the end eyecandy is rather distracting than actually improving efficiency etc., but in practice many people love eyecandy. When I would go in a mobile phone store looking for a new phone, walking past a device with the typical Metro home screen probably isn't much of an eyecatcher. When they would  try out the phone they might realize that the user interface concept is very clever, but they probably don't come that far because with several other smartphones around, the simplistic Metro user interface probably won't be catching their attention.