I really enjoy the wp7 platform - developing apps is a cakewalk compared to iOS / Android and fragmentation is nonexistent. As a user of both iOS and wp7... wp7 just has a better overall user experience, it's not massive - but it's many small incremental improvements that add up.
Here's their problem: the carrier / retail ecosystem for WP7 sucks in the US. It's clear that they don't have any carriers truly on board except for AT&T... which is easily the worst carrier in my area (Chicago) in terms of both reliability and pricing.
Verizon has ONE crap Windows Phone, the HTC Trophy - possibly the worst Windows Phone available. So that's a no go. Sprint also has a single crappy phone. T-Mobile has a whole two phones - Lumia 710 (a crap version of the Lumia 900), and the HTC Radar - which is actually pretty nice, but hobbled by only 8GB of built-in storage. Even then, go to any of those stores and you'll have a rep trying to sell you an Android phone when you walk in the door. Check their websites and you'll see WP7 phones are at the very bottom.
Priority #1 should be fixing their retail/carrier ecosystem. The platform is fantastic, and there are some damn good phones too - but you're screwed unless you're on AT&T.
To be honest, after the week I've had with it, I wish I hadn't now.
Had to resort to fiddling with a micro SIM adapter and my emergency Nokia 3310 I've had for about 10 years two times this week because it went flat in about 6 hours of doing nothing.
The 3310 makes me feel warm and fuzzy still even after all that time and bear in mind the battery is 10 years old, lasts about 5 days on standby.
You probably know this, but for anyone else reading in the UK, the 14 day 'cooling off' period applies only to things bought remotely ('sight unseen'). If you had a chance to look at it before you bought it, it's yours, no backsies. :-)
I'm on Verizon. I'd like to buy a Windows Phone, or at least think about buying a Windows Phone. The OS looks good, but every Verizon Windows Phone sucks.
This. I'm looking for a decent Windows Phone for about a year now. Something similar to HTC One X or Galaxy S III. Instead, they decided to make even cheaper devices.
Right now, they can't make WP7 device on par with One X or GS3. Not because nobody is willing, but due to compromises MS has chosen, when they developed WP7.
Do you remember, that the big selling point of WP was that you do not have problem with system upgrade? That you do not have to wait for system updates from vendors, because MS can push them directly?
Well, it turns out, that they can do it because they support only one design - one SoC (Qualcomm Snapdragon), two screen resolutions ("big" 800x480 and "small" 320x480), etc.
So basically, all phones are the same, just in different cases, with different logos. One one hand, it gets you direct system updates. On the other hand, it loses the competition in hardware, that pushes vendors to bring new products to the market. What's in it for NVidia, Samsung, TI, when they cannot use Tegra, Exynos, OMAP in WP7 devices? They will use android, where they can try to better up the competitors.
That's why we have One X and GS3, but WP7 is stuck in MSM8xxx land.
He blames sales reps at carrier stores for not pushing customers to buy WP7 devices as they do with iPhone and Android. Wrong, Mr. Elop. The reps aren't getting paid by Apple or Google to sell their devices. Their devices are actually so cool and desirable that the reps evangelise it themselves. A WP7 device is neither cool nor compelling--not even the sexy Lumia. I'd rather have an N9.
I'm probably selling my Lumia 900 (after AT&T sends me a new one since my current one has issues with the capacitive buttons) and getting a Galaxy Nexus straight from Google. I missed flashing new ROMs and kernels every month like I did with my Nexus One.. Plus it seems WP7 devices are going to get left in the dust when WP8 comes out.
I really like my HD7 simply for the OS. The hardware is actually old and that's the unfortunate state for most of the Windows Phone "selection". The bigger problem is that all of the good phones are on one network.
Here's their problem: the carrier / retail ecosystem for WP7 sucks in the US. It's clear that they don't have any carriers truly on board except for AT&T... which is easily the worst carrier in my area (Chicago) in terms of both reliability and pricing.
Verizon has ONE crap Windows Phone, the HTC Trophy - possibly the worst Windows Phone available. So that's a no go. Sprint also has a single crappy phone. T-Mobile has a whole two phones - Lumia 710 (a crap version of the Lumia 900), and the HTC Radar - which is actually pretty nice, but hobbled by only 8GB of built-in storage. Even then, go to any of those stores and you'll have a rep trying to sell you an Android phone when you walk in the door. Check their websites and you'll see WP7 phones are at the very bottom.
Priority #1 should be fixing their retail/carrier ecosystem. The platform is fantastic, and there are some damn good phones too - but you're screwed unless you're on AT&T.