It seems a lot of people get very defensive when someone else degrades their choice of smartphones. Its a phone people not something that is going to change the way we live.
Although I agree with your overall sentiment, I disagree that someone's phone doesn't change the way they live... in fact, my smartphone has changed my lifestyle in profound ways, from mobile internet (at speeds faster than what I get on wired home service) to location-based services such as maps and navigation. Due to the different "ecosystems" that surround each platform, one's choice of smartphone materially affects what services that person is able to utilize... creating small confederations of "Apple people", "Android people", "Windows people", and so on.
If you choose to champion one brand over another thats fine; we all need causes. But no need to degrade someone who champions another brand. In the end we are all going to have dirt shoveled in our faces and the type of phone we used or computer we sat in front of is not going to matter.
Ah, but it
does matter... People view their choice in products as a reflection of themselves, an extension of their tastes and values. Did you ever notice that the majority of cases and covers for iPhones and iPads have a cutout on the back of them to display the Apple logo? The logo serves no purpose other than to advertise that the device is an Apple product, and people are more than happy to show off that logo so they can be associated with the "cool" people who use Apple products. When those people walked into the AT&T/Verizon/Sprint/Whoever store to buy that device, chances are that the sales rep played off that "cool factor" to make the sale - whether or not the iDevice matched the customer's needs may have been less important in the transaction. With the exploding popularity of Android (pushed up by VZW's Droid marketing and Samsung's "Next Big Thing" Galaxy ads), we see the same thing being played out from another camp - the tech-savvy geeks. If the phone geeks say that the Samsung Galaxy Whatever is the best choice, then by virtue of being a geek, they must be right...right?! It's got
so many apps, and there must be an app for whatever I'm doing, and that Android robot is so cute, and the screens are huuuuuuuge, and the
games, and... and... you see where this goes. Again, perception by others in the group create a need to buy into products that are favorable to that group.
Where does that leave Windows Phone? It has features that more than satisfy most peoples' base needs (phone, SMS/MMS, email, web). It has several thousand apps, including a great deal of the core ones, however less of the hot-now-not-now types. The UI is easy to navigate, easy to customize. Cameras on the Lumia models are far better than others in their respective price ranges. On paper, Windows Phones should be standing toe-to-toe with the iPhones and Galaxies... but they're not. They're
just not "cool".
It's this perception that Microsoft's marketing and retail need to overcome. The "Honestly" ads honestly suck. There's nothing compelling that I'm seeing in those ads that make me think Windows Phone is desirable. The training and incentive programs for carrier retail need to be rejuvenated... hell, they need to be
resurrected. The OP had a poor experience in a Microsoft corporate store... in our conversation here, this may have just been an edge case; when it comes to carrier retail, I think it's agreed that there's little to no respect for Windows Phone universally. My experience with T-Mobile shows me that their money's on everyone except WP... this past weekend, they were giving $200 credit for any BlackBerry trade-ins, with an additional $50 to upgrade to another BlackBerry...
they were literally paying people to stick with BlackBerry, even over a better equipped Windows Phone!
The end game here is survival of the platform. Without brand champions and ambassadors, without retail support, without popular opinion, Windows Phone will lose developers. Developers take their apps and services to a different platform, making the value of owning a Windows Phone less and less... until it dies. Look at PalmOS... Symbian... webOS... Maemo/MeeGo... and (possibly soon) BlackBerry.
We shouldn't stoop to degrading and disparaging other platforms - granted, iOS and Android work for lots of folks - but we shouldn't just lay down and apologize for being a WP user either. When questioned, show them why your Windows Phone works for you - who knows, maybe that awesome Nokia Camera might be the thing that sways someone new over to WP. It did for me. :grin: