Sorry to the OP. Many people I know swear by their iPhones. And with those for whom iOS doesn't fit (for whatever reason: Apple's idiosyncrasies, carrier/phone choice, app/OS choice, etc.), Android is an excellent alternative where Angry Birds runs just as well.
WM7, on the other hand, still sounds like a black sheep, so I'm always curious to hear how someone decides to opt for this choice. I think the most common I hear is "I was waiting for a long time, and I was hoping this time Microsoft got it right."
Signed, a former loyal Microsoft customer/fan who one day stopped waiting.
I own both an iPhone and a couple of Android phones. I think both platforms have some pretty significant issues. From my perspective, I don't appreciate the lockout of competitive applications on iOS (browsers, etc.) and Apple's attempt to leverage their platform to force their content businesses to the forefront (required in app purchases, etc). Android seems to have bred a pervasive ecosystem of spyware, and has big issues with keeping the OS upgraded on most phones. Both platforms suffer from serious delays in addressing vulnerabilities in the OS and webkit browsers.
Which isn't to say that I expect(ed) WP7 to be any better in those regards, though there was always hope. I didn't go out and buy one/start developing for them, but I can certainly understand how someone might come to choose door #3.
There is always no better choice until suddenly there is one.
More money, perhaps, but to me that's not saying much. As usual everyone is competing for 3rd place, not just in the market but in developers' hearts. Whichever platform gets an amazing new innovative app first wins, third loses. The rest didn't even place.
Maybe this was a restriction in the past, I'm not sure, but I've been happily running iCab Mobile for quite some time and enjoying it's more grown-up featureset.
Note that that browser apparently uses Safari/Webkit objects to display content and interpret javascript. So you're still effectively using the iOS safari browser, albeit framed and with a different UI and some management features.
First, he gave the obvious and fairly well-known official answer, “We have no plans to release the full Firefox browser for Apple iOS devices,” Brubeck wrote. Why? Because the current iOS SDK agreement forbids apps like Firefox from including their own compilers and interpreters, Brubeck explains.
But he continues on to note that there are a couple of ways to work within Apple’s system, notably what Skyfire is doing (using Apple’s own build-in WebKit libraries) or what Opera Mini is doing (using a proxy server to execute their JavaScript). “Mozilla could create a browser that did one of those things, but it wouldn’t be related to Firefox in any way,” Brubeck explains.
I got a WP7 phone (the HTC HD7) after realizing that I had a top-of-the-line Android phone (the HTC Evo) and, even with CyanogenMod, it still felt really slow. Almost worse than an iPhone 3G. For me, WP7 feels a lot better than Android or iOS.
Like you and the linked article, I really enjoy working with the WP7 development stack. I'm currently working (with 3 other devs) on a mobile application for 4 platforms (iOS, Android, WP7, and JQuery Mobile).
Even having skipped an entire sprint (~10 days) to focus more on Android, the WP7 app is progressing along further and faster than the other clients. Just having support for (albeit limited) databinding is a huge win. Plus, you get great looking apps pretty much for free with the theming defaults.
That said, I have access to a few Windows phones (HTC Surround, HTC HD7, and some keyboard phone) and I would not be able to switch to any of them over my Nexus One. Dealbreakers for me:
* The search button is locked to Bing (not configurable)
* The browser is not only IE, but a crappy offshoot of an old version of IE (I believe IE7 w/ a few patches)
Can you please post your per-platform usage stats after you launch? I think that it would be of value for the mobile developers here.
Also, since you are attacking simultaneously on four fronts - a blog post about the advantages and disadvantages of developing code and assets (graphics) for each platform would be great (obvious one - no IB/ExprStudio for Android?).
Have you tried CM7? One hour after installing the CM7 release candidate, I found I was in love with Android. It's like upgrading from a cheapass Windows XP netbook to a MacBook Pro with an SSD.
Also, I may be completely overstating how slow it was. It definitely wasn't unusable, but it felt slower than it should have been. This was after multiple wipes to multiple ROMs too.
Consider how much data you're putting on it. No phone is going to be fast when you ask it to pull down 5gb of email as some of my users do. The iPhone isn't that magical.
Do people even know or care about the difference between Windows phones and Android phones? My sister certainly doesn’t. There is the iPhone (which she doesn’t like at all) and then there are all other smartphones, some of which she quite likes.
When she talks about cell phones she talks, with the exception of the iPhone (which she just calls iPhone), about manufacturers – HTC, Samsung – and she only recently said that she quite likes the HTC Mozart (which, to my surprise, runs Windows Phone 7).
zyphlar, for some strange reason your comment is dead.
Here is your text: “She'll like it until she realizes it actually sucks. Which is why consumer electronics manufacturers can still turn a profit in last place. But eventually she'll see everyone else doing cool things she can't do, and she'll switch. Or convince herself she didn't want to do those things.”
The HTC Mozart was recommended to her from a friend – I’m really not all that sure that the differences between WP7 and Android matter to all that many people.
For WP7, I like the design, I like the .net development environment and it does what I want a phone to do. I generally find it more convenient than the I-Pod Touch and the "missing features" aren't things I personally can't live without (well, or I just use my I-Pod for them)
Just want to say that you can do iphone/android app dev in C# by using Monotouch/MonoDroid. Of course, you have to write a different UI layer for each platform.
WM7, on the other hand, still sounds like a black sheep, so I'm always curious to hear how someone decides to opt for this choice. I think the most common I hear is "I was waiting for a long time, and I was hoping this time Microsoft got it right."
Signed, a former loyal Microsoft customer/fan who one day stopped waiting.