For starters, the plethora of mapping/GPS apps that will let you use topo maps. Importantly, to install/download USGS maps and use them in an offline state. Also, with WP limitation with background apps, sometimes, apps just shutdown, nullifying the inherent benefit of these types of apps. I can't tell you how annoying it is to think I am logging a GPS track to find out that the app is no longer running and I have to restart it. Even things like Endomondo which has been around forever doesn't work well as a background app.
Also, let's look at things like the sensors the diff hardware platforms support. Can WP hardware support ANT+ devices?
I just get tired of all the WP "It's coming! Just wait!" statements where as with iOS, the statement is "It's available now.". A lot of people talk about how the iOS UI is dated and old, but you know what, it still works and is sill very usable. What's wrong with that?
I don't think I'm saying anything new here. All these things are things that already been stated ad naseum. I don't want to rehash things we have been talking about FOREVER. (Which by itself is something, why are we STILL talking about the SAME things after all this time? Shouldn't we be moving on to other stuff?)
I like gadgets, and I like something new and different. I have had a Palm Pre (first one), HTC EVO (Android), and an iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, and now 5. By the way, I liked the UI and multi-tasking on the Pre the best, it was just painfully slow, and Palm and HP don't know how to run a phone business, so it is basically dead. As I was telling the Verizon guy, I can hold up my iPhone 5 next to the very first one, and the on-screen UI is identical, other than one more row of apps...wooohooo. The phone is really the app, and Apple has a launch screen that takes you to the App where you do stuff. Basically shortcuts to apps that came out with the original Macintosh, Windows 3 and earlier, and OS/2. If you want the most stable, reliable, best battery life and you are good with the iPhone UI, get an iPhone 5 or wait until June and get a 5S or 6 or whatever they come out with. With Apple's present rate of innovation, it might even have a better camera and them touting "really, the Maps app is better."
I changed from the PC to a Mac in 2009, solely for something different. The only real innovation from Snow Leopard to now is the share button and airplay, though iCloud is cool with getting your pictures onto all your devices. Be they nice features, implemented well, there is still very little that has really changed to speak of. You can hit a button and get an iPad-like screen with basically shortcuts to your apps, again...wooohooo. Unfortunately, with Mountain Lion, you now get to watch the spinning beach ball many times per day (for you Windows folks, think hour glass or rotating circle). The general stability of the OS and Beach Ball frequency puts it in the league with Windows 98, SE, or Millennium (ok, slight exaggeration). Sad Apple has gone backwards in that area, but it is true. OS makes your laptop slower too, which is almost always the case with new OSs.
So, I bought a Surface Pro for my son, thinking that if the handwriting recognition was good enough, you could write as fast as you can and have it converted to text. Great for college notes in class or labs, when you don't want a full keyboard, and also when you want to free-hand draw. Very precise stylus. Metro is also cool, though the one app at a time with swipe switching is more tablet / iPad like, and only good for casual use (facebook, browser, and several other apps). I have to work on the desktop with the Office apps, which has nicely been optimized as to not be such a resource pig with 3d window borders and such that add zero value. I am so impressed I bought myself one and my daughter one for her 18th Birthday. We all love it. My iPad 2 stays in the drawer (and has for over a year) except when I want to quickly look something up on the Internet or let my granddaughter play games on it.
All that said, my present "dream phone" just for fun would be a Core iX system on a chip with Windows 8 Pro and a stylus with the same quality of recognition and precise-ness of the Surface Pro. That way I have real Office Apps, including OneNote, Visio, and Project, and I can actually get real work done; unlike the Android or iPhone. As a side note, a Nokia rep and AT&T store guy were touring me around a Nokia 920, and I asked if Word on there supported styles. "Oh yea, let me show you." They pulled up a menu with bullets and numbered list icons. I said, do you know what a style is in MS-Word, and had to spend 2 or 3 minutes explaining it. They responded that it would clutter up the interface too much, and that is why Microsoft left it out... So much for editing a statement of work on my Surface Pro and finishing it up on my phone, hence my Core iX desire
For now, I will take my May upgrade on Verizon and get a 928 or something better if it comes out by May (how about a Galaxy S4 with Windows Phone 8, oh Samsung great leader of the Smart Phone business? ;-)). My hope is that Microsoft does a Surface Phone 8 or Surface Phone 9, then I will "steal" my wife or daughter's upgrade (she will get my iPhone 5), and get one of those.
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