Smartphones are all about ecosystems, and as the various Microsoft efforts there have shown, Apple and Google now have that locked up. However they don't do the x86/Windows ecosystems in phone space and not Apple in tablet space, and now no one will find out how much demand there was for x86 Windows smart phones.
Agree, and I would actually gladly exchange my Android devices by WP ones, given the developer experience. I really don't get where do all those PhDs at Google work, surely not on Android dev tools.
But Microsoft might still win the space of productive tablets, as I am yet to find one as good as the Surface.
Yes, the rewrites were shitty.
Apple and Google also do it, but they can allow themselves to push the developers through them.