An iPhone Lover's Take On Windows Phone
Back in October, after the official launch of Windows Phone 7, I wrote up some initial thoughts after having played with a few prototype devices in the months leading up to the launch. Many seemed surprised by my mostly positive reactions.
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft's October launch of Windows Phone 7 put a fresh third operating system on the market at a moment when the iPhone's four-year head start had hardened into an ecosystem, not just a device. The notable wrinkle here is who is delivering the verdict: an avowed iPhone lover who spent months with pre-launch prototypes and came away mostly positive, surprising readers who expected reflexive loyalty.
That mirrors the genre this site helped establish with its own first-impressions piece on the original iPhone in June 2007 — enthusiast verdicts at launch have become the reference points platforms get measured against, so a warm review from inside the rival camp carries more persuasive weight than Microsoft saying the same thing about itself.
First-order effects
- Windows Phone 7 gains its most valuable kind of early credential: unprompted praise from an iPhone-committed reviewer, which lowers the psychological barrier for Apple loyalists considering a second device or a switch.
- Microsoft gets a launch-narrative asset it cannot buy — an outsider's confirmation that the platform is worth taking seriously rather than dismissing outright.
Second-order effects
- Carriers and developers now have a signal to watch: whether enthusiast goodwill converts into units sold and apps installed, which determines how much shelf space and development effort the new platform commands next year.
- Apple feels little direct pressure from one review, but every credible 'an iPhone user likes it too' datapoint erodes the assumption that iOS users are unreachable — the audience both carriers and Microsoft most want to crack.
Third-order effects
- If the enthusiast-endorsement pattern holds, smartphone competition structurally shifts from a two-platform market to a contested three-way race where the deciding votes come from users of the incumbent ecosystems, not from each platform's existing base.
- Launch-window reviews become a durable gatekeeping layer for new mobile platforms: without a positive verdict from rival-camp voices, a third entrant risks being priced out of consideration before scale economics ever kick in.
The trend: Mobile platform competition is moving from hardware spec sheets to enthusiast legitimacy, where a third entrant like Windows Phone 7 lives or dies on whether committed users of the incumbents vouch for it.