I am a WP user sinds Windows Mobile, but left the ship in July 2013 when there was absolutely no progress shown in OS and apps. My HTC One is for me the perfect Phone and all apps are available. But, I really miss WP 8.1, the OS is so smooth, so beautiful to look at. When I turn on my HTC 8X (as backup phone) it's alway fun to watch the tiles flipping. Android and iOS is so dull.
That's why I was in the race for buying a Nokia Lumia 930 BUT...the situation regarding Whatsapp is for me unacceptable to move back to WP. My girlfriend is just mad at me because I adviced her to buy a Lumia 925 for a nice price last week. All our friends use Whatsapp, texting is very expensive in The Netherlands. Other friends who bought a WP phone are not happy with it and some have sold their phone and bought an Android device.
One app can ruin WP as a platform, it just can. Ok lot's of other apps are not available yet or still in Beta, but Whatsapp is communicating software where people depend on. People are used to it and it's the one and only app that matters for most people.
WP is lossing marketshare, right now. I have no figures, but it's what I see and hear. It's really a shame that Whatsapp and MS ignore all the complaints from the userbase. Maybe it's time for MS to do exactly what they did with Facebook, developing their own Whatsapp compatible client? No idea if that is realistic, but something needs to happen before it's way too late.
How nice the latest phones are, without certain apps they are worthless.