It's not a scam mate - they're rolling the challenge out to US phone stores. You actually have to use Windows Phone to appreciate how fast, stable and efficient the system is - and how seamless everything operates, how it just simply "works".
The OS has received critical acclaim from all sides of the spectrum, and 2012 is being touted within the tech world as the year of the Windows Phone, even pro-iPhone journalists are now questioning/demanding that Apple need to to up their game significantly if they want to compete with WP7.
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/why-i-dont-want-an-iphone-any-more-50006257/Of course it's not perfect; WP7 is just the start - WP7.5 put right a lot of the criticisms myself and other WinMo loyalists had slated it for initially, the G2 devices ironed out any lingering flaws that existed in the G1 devices, and WP8 will be out by the end of 2012. This time last year, WP7 was still finding it's feet, manufacturers were still getting to grips with having to comply with strict handset specifications (which, like the iPhone, ensure QoS) and the "new" handsets were almost carbon-copies of the final range of WinMo handsets, but with improved CPU's and 3 buttons instead of 4 (7 Pro = TP2, HD7 = HD2 etc...), developers were still wondering whether apps were worth the time and effort (everything on WinMo got "warezed" and there wasn't enough handsets in peoples hands to warrant development, manufacturers were even still producing WinMo handsets at the time, Microsoft didn't have the biggest phone manufacturer on earth onboard (Nokia), and the handsets that were out, were expensive and people did not know what to expect (another WinMo experience, or something better?). Nokia's sales of the Lumia 800 are approaching the 2 million mark, a handset that was launched just 9 weeks ago! Shops are even actively pushing Windows Phone handsets now, the Lumia being the flagship, and fast becoming an icon - compare this to a year ago, when all any shop wanted to sell you was an iPhone, and the staff in the shop's had not even heard of Windows Phone, or completely disregarded it, making statements how it was "out of date" (it is the newest OS to market) and how it was for business customers and no interest to most (the truth couldn't be any further away - WinMo became a business OS, WP7 was, from day one, built with the objective of not being a business OS - if Microsoft wanted that, WinMo 7 would have been released in 2008). There is even muted talk of RIM, with some of their investors pushing the idea, eventually changing over to WP in light of their QNX delays and anticipated adoption problems. Indeed, Nokia had various choices when choosing an OS to go with, a choice that will make-or-break Nokia's desire to return to the dominant western phone manufacturer. Some of those choices included:
- Windows Phone
- Meego
- Maemo
- Symbian
- Android
- Bada/Tizen
- WebOS
Nokia are a company with HUGE aspirations, being the biggest manufacturer or phones in the world, carries high expectations from shareholders. Nokia chose Windows Phone above all the others - an Elop connection or no Elop connection, if they believed any other OS available to them was better, they'd have gone with it.
WP7 was built from scratch (it bears no relation to Windows Mobile, which was scrapped half-way through development of WinMo 7/Photon), so it is still not fully developed either.
I fail to see how that shows why Windows Phone is awful; day-today usage decides if it's awful or not, not a pointless application. It's one small element, that realistically, nobody uses in everyday usage - which could also be a scam (in fact, is very likely to be - for instance we don't even know what version of WP is on the device). TellMe was out a long time before Siri, and is till in development. On the basis of a 2 minute video, you have come to the conclusion that almost everyone else within the tech-world is wrong?? Very strange...
Apple diehards will never be convinced anything is better, if Apple started selling pieces or turn with their badge on it and called it iShit, people would buy it. Microsoft, Nokia, HTC, Samsung, ZTE, Dell, LG arnt interested in Apple fanbois, the few people who have £500 to throw on a phone every 12 months - they are interested in the mass-market.
Are you honestly suggesting the iPhone 4s was what you were expecting from Apple? They are sticking to their guns, touting the same old shit, and the rest of the industry is leaving them behind. The iOS GUI was revolutionary in its day, it changed everything. But it's "day" was 2007, and we are now in 2012. Just like Windows Mobile was once way ahead of its time, but that was in 2002, and Microsoft were still trying to plug it right upto 2010. The world does not stand still, and no amount of feature recycling/rebranding will help Apple keep up with the competition. The only people who buy into Apples "give it a fancy name to make it seem somehow better then the rest" philosophy are fanbois, of which there is a lot, but the industry are beginning to get tired of seeing the same old stale GUI time and time again, with Apple seeming scared witless to rock the boat, to try and replicate what they did so well in 2007 with the original iPhone and bring to market, the most innovative product imaginable - nope, Palm and Microsoft have done that in 2009 and 2011 respectively, and Apple have been found wanting.
What can I say; Steve Jobs is dead, and with him died Apples vision, aspiration and knowledge of his demographic - the world. Steve Jobs made that company what they are, developed the products into what they became and listened to, and could forsee what the world wanted. Nobody else in Apple seems to be capable of doing that - the iPhone 5 will be deal-breaker for many, it "has" to do something more than just recycle age-old tech into "iTech", it has to fundamentally change the way we do things - if it doesn't, people won't stick around forever, as the once in-fashion Nokia found out with the drawn-out demise of Symbian.
And fyi, Ice Cream Sandwich blows Honeycomb to pieces - hardly fair to use an out-of-date OS as a modern-day benchmark (yes, we know Apple are still plugging their 5 year old GUI). Honeycomb was always a bit of a mess in all honesty, and not where Android was ever going to stay.
Microsoft have a lot of people by the short and curlies now, which is why they can literally throw money at the mobile division, like nobody else - they are making money on practically every smartphone sold, irrespective of OS - and are seemingly the only company who has not got themselves involved in an ongoing soap-opera of patent battles - a problem that is forcing the others to take their eyes off the ball, to restrict their future development to avoid future disputes - meanwhile, Microsoft are creaming money off everyone else, and concentrating hard on blowing the "iDroid" market monopoly to pieces...