Ignorance. Nobody can deny that Windows Phone can run better even on older SoC, and having latest SoC is redundant, but that's only after they actually try the phone. Microsoft fails to see this trend in market, even non techies know that bigger number is better. I don't know about other market but here, Lumia phone have half the specifications for similar price. Those Chinese phone are really dead cheap, and no, not some shady brand but the big ones, Lenovo, Xiaomi, etc. Most people prefer an Octa Core and 2GB RAM phone from these brand instead of a quad core and 1GB RAM Lumia 640, which cost 30% more. They don't even understand differences between SoC, what they know is SD410>SD400, Octa-core>Quad-Core, 2GB>1GB, for only 70% of the price. No contract, fully unlocked. This happen in low end and mid end market, which is where Microsoft seemingly spend their effort the most, but just don't do well enough, and won't, unless their strategy changed.