That does it. I'm hanging on to my Star TAC until fall.

Microsoft's product a year from now will be completely awesome. You should totally not buy their competitor's product and wait for teh awesome!

This is a repeat from 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987....

The Onion is prophetic: BullBearMS: Microsoft's product a year from now will be completely awesome. You should totally not buy their competitor's product and wait for teh awesome!

This is a repeat from 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987....

Was 1991 an off-year for them?

That was the year they announced Cairo at PDC. The more forgotten that is the better

Microsoft: Announce Product. Maybe ship it in the next 1 year to never.
Apple: Announce Product. Ship when we tell you we would (always within 6 months)

/been dealing with Microsoft for 22 years - never shipped anything they announced ontime or with the features they promised. Evar.

I still personaly don't choose to use it but I'm at least stillsimpressed with how microsoft battering rammed their way into the console gaming market with xbox. Probably gave them all this false hope about how easy it'd be for the zune and this phone.

MS has a good product with WP7 (7.5).
In a lot of aspects it's better than it's IOS competitor.

But, unless we end up on Bizarro world, Apple is going to dominate phone sales in 12.

My brother uses a windows phone and it is pretty nice. If (when) I ever switch back to a windows pc, i'd probably also switch to a windows phone.

gaslight: Does anyone remember this parody ad from a few years ago?

Thanks for that

I like my Mango phone as a phone. It leaves some to be desired as an application platform because of the limitations put on the software, but as a longtime tech ubernerd I'm okay with it. The only thing that annoys me is my WM6 phone has free tethering built in, this phone has jackall for tethering

What did we say about "super" wishes?! Remember super toilet?!!

Did someone say Super Toilet?

It took the whole plunger!!!!

bhcompy: I like my Mango phone as a phone. It leaves some to be desired as an application platform because of the limitations put on the software, but as a longtime tech ubernerd I'm okay with it. The only thing that annoys me is my WM6 phone has free tethering built in, this phone has jackall for tethering

Mango supports WiFi tethering if the carrier and manufacturer turn it on. Not sure about the other carriers, but on both the HTC Radar and HD7 it is a simple matter of turning it on in the settings.

Ice Cream Sandwich is a big step up for the Android OS. Apple better hope that five year roadmap Jobs laid out can stay relevant enough to keep Android at bay.

skinink: Ice Cream Sandwich is a big step up for the Android OS. Apple better hope that five year roadmap Jobs laid out can stay relevant enough to keep Android at bay.

Nope apple will go back to it's 8% share

chitownmike: skinink: Ice Cream Sandwich is a big step up for the Android OS. Apple better hope that five year roadmap Jobs laid out can stay relevant enough to keep Android at bay.

Nope apple will go back to it's 8% share

...and still rake in the profits.

All they have to do is add $12 worth of features, come up with bullshiat brand names for those features, and charge $200 more. Enough people will still eat that shiat up (and then boast with pride at Apple's profit margins for some reason).

Steve Ballmer and the rest of the Microsoft executive suite like to pretend that the Windows Phone is competing against Apple and Google. It's not. It's competing against rival ideas inside Microsoft.

It's no secret to anyone that Steve Ballmer will abandon the Windows Phone for something shinier or newer the millisecond a fancy new VP manages to pitch anything resembling another mobile platform with a good business case. Microsoft is constantly churning through under-performing products, acquiring slick new talent and ideas from fresh young startups, and then belching it out again in a few years when the shine wears off. And eventually they're going to buy another mobile startup and ditch Windows Phone for the "Microsoft Palantir" (or something).

And that's why the VP in charge of the Windows Phone knows that his competition isn't Apple or Google. He doesn't have to beat the iPhone, and he's not going to try. He knows he has to give lip service to beating Apple, because Steve Ballmer really seems to have some sort of unnatural nerd rage against Apple. But really he knows that to keep his job he just has to keep all the other mobile platform ideas inside Microsoft away from Steve Ballmer.

And that's also why the carriers don't care about WP7 either. They know that ultimately Microsoft is just making phones so that Steve Ballmer can preen his fragile ego and have something other than iPods to put in his kid's Christmas stockings. Microsoft is never going to do anything big or revolutionary with it, and in a few short years they're going to ditch it for something else anyhow.

almandot: I still personaly don't choose to use it but I'm at least stillsimpressed with how microsoft battering rammed their way into the console gaming market with xbox. Probably gave them all this false hope about how easy it'd be for the zune and this phone.

It did take quite a bit of pushing.

The Larch: Steve Ballmer and the rest of the Microsoft executive suite like to pretend that the Windows Phone is competing against Apple and Google. It's not. It's competing against rival ideas inside Microsoft.

It's no secret to anyone that Steve Ballmer will abandon the Windows Phone for something shinier or newer the millisecond a fancy new VP manages to pitch anything resembling another mobile platform with a good business case. Microsoft is constantly churning through under-performing products, acquiring slick new talent and ideas from fresh young startups, and then belching it out again in a few years when the shine wears off. And eventually they're going to buy another mobile startup and ditch Windows Phone for the "Microsoft Palantir" (or something).

And that's why the VP in charge of the Windows Phone knows that his competition isn't Apple or Google. He doesn't have to beat the iPhone, and he's not going to try. He knows he has to give lip service to beating Apple, because Steve Ballmer really seems to have some sort of unnatural nerd rage against Apple. But really he knows that to keep his job he just has to keep all the other mobile platform ideas inside Microsoft away from Steve Ballmer.

And that's also why the carriers don't care about WP7 either. They know that ultimately Microsoft is just making phones so that Steve Ballmer can preen his fragile ego and have something other than iPods to put in his kid's Christmas stockings. Microsoft is never going to do anything big or revolutionary with it, and in a few short years they're going to ditch it for something else anyhow.

Except for two things:
1) MS killed the Courier, which was decidedly targeted at the professional market, not the consumer market(meaning: "good business case")
2) The Metro UI is the future of Windows 8, so I do not see them dropping WP7 arbitrarily.

Subby:"Microsoft said to be developing new 'Superphone' that will make the upcoming iPhone 5 irrelevant, presumably by orbiting the Earth so rapidly it makes the young Steve Jobs Jonathan Ive go to work for Microsoft "

Took too long to fix.

/Steve Jobs, designer of all, inventor of everything, reader of the golden plates and God's own father.

bhcompy: MS killed the Courier, which was decidedly targeted at the professional market, not the consumer market

The Courier was just a movie that a couple of interns put together. There was no software, no hardware, no design, no business case, nothing. It was just a movie. The didn't kill it, because it never existed.

The Metro UI is the future of Windows 8, so I do not see them dropping WP7 arbitrarily.

Windows 8 doesn't even have a target ship date yet. You'll have better odds predicting the winner of the Super Bowl than you will have predicting what features will actually ship with Windows 8. Even if Metro ultimately does ship with Windows 8, there's no guarantee that it will be a first-class product. Windows is full of optional components and resource kits for products that were deprecated years ago. Microsoft is a really flakey company, and they change their mind about features and products constantly.

My money is that in 10 years you'll see a "Windows Metro UI" optional install with Windows 2022, and think back in horror to the time when you tried to install it on your Grandmother's computer when Windows 8 came out in 2014, before just giving up and getting her an iPad 4.

Diogenes Teufelsdrockh: Subby:"Microsoft said to be developing new 'Superphone' that will make the upcoming iPhone 5 irrelevant, presumably by orbiting the Earth so rapidly it makes the young Steve Jobs Jonathan Ive go to work for Microsoft "

Somehow, I can't imagine Ballmer giving Ive the freedom Jobs did.

You mean it will have great voice quality, and superior function as a "phone?

I know. I'm a dreamer.

The Larch: Steve Ballmer and the rest of the Microsoft executive suite like to pretend that the Windows Phone is competing against Apple and Google. It's not. It's competing against rival ideas inside Microsoft.

It's no secret to anyone that Steve Ballmer will abandon the Windows Phone for something shinier or newer the millisecond a fancy new VP manages to pitch anything resembling another mobile platform with a good business case. Microsoft is constantly churning through under-performing products, acquiring slick new talent and ideas from fresh young startups, and then belching it out again in a few years when the shine wears off. And eventually they're going to buy another mobile startup and ditch Windows Phone for the "Microsoft Palantir" (or something).

And that's why the VP in charge of the Windows Phone knows that his competition isn't Apple or Google. He doesn't have to beat the iPhone, and he's not going to try. He knows he has to give lip service to beating Apple, because Steve Ballmer really seems to have some sort of unnatural nerd rage against Apple. But really he knows that to keep his job he just has to keep all the other mobile platform ideas inside Microsoft away from Steve Ballmer.

And that's also why the carriers don't care about WP7 either. They know that ultimately Microsoft is just making phones so that Steve Ballmer can preen his fragile ego and have something other than iPods to put in his kid's Christmas stockings. Microsoft is never going to do anything big or revolutionary with it, and in a few short years they're going to ditch it for something else anyhow.

sigh. it's not like there's 20 million different products floating around Microsoft headquarters and they pick randomly which ones they bring to market. what happens is that they build concepts and attempt to incorporate them into future shipping products. And yes, they will abandon Windows Phone 7 for Windows Phone 8. But there's no chance they're abandoning Windows Phone, it's what Android is to Google and iPhone is to Apple.

If they do have a "cool" mobile phone concept floating around R&D, they try to incorporate its features into Windows Phone. They don't nuke everything and build a whole new product line.

They should market as a product that no one would ever want to use... to lure in the hipsters from Apple.

Rent is too damn high: But there's no chance they're abandoning Windows Phone, it's what Android is to Google and iPhone is to Apple.

Silverlight is the primary basis of Win Phone apps, isn't it?

Microsoft has already decided to abandon Silverlight, haven't they?

BullBearMS: Rent is too damn high: But there's no chance they're abandoning Windows Phone, it's what Android is to Google and iPhone is to Apple.

Silverlight is the primary basis of Win Phone apps, isn't it?

Microsoft has already decided to abandon Silverlight, haven't they?

As a browser plugin, yes. As an app development tool, no.

Rent is too damn high: But there's no chance they're abandoning Windows Phone, it's what Android is to Google and iPhone is to Apple.

That's what they said about Plays for Sure^TM. Face facts... Microsoft has a reputation for being really, really flakey. They've already abandoned Windows Mobile, the Zune, the Kin, the Tablet PC, and dozens of other consumer products. If they never get any traction on the Windows Phone, they'll abandon that too. Maybe they'll get into tablets again! I heard those are really popular.

The iphone is still relevant? LOL...

People walk around staring at their phones like they were holding a piece of the true cross. Pathetic.

The Larch: If they never get any traction on the Windows Phone, they'll abandon that too.

At this point they are killing time until they get CPU's fast enough and low power enough to support a stripped down version of Windows.

I'm waiting for the new steam powered cell phone. Touch screens are so 2011.

They may have bombed with the Zune, but Microsoft also entered the console gaming market, and dominates it to this day. After years of dominance by Nintendo, and a successful Playstation by Sony, the Original X-Box held it's own, and the 360 blew the rest out of the water. Playstation 3 is still lagging behind, 6 years later.

Microsoft is still capable of doing things right. Whether they will, who knows. But when they do, it's pretty cool.

agentxavier: By the time windows releases their "super phone" android and iOS will make it seem like a rotary telephone.

by "Competitive Superphone" they're probably refering to things like tegra3 based phones, or equivalent. Which, is probably a platform worthy of being called a superphone. It's also tacit acknowledgement there will be several handsets for people to choose from. Just saying....

taurusowner: They may have bombed with the Zune, but Microsoft also entered the console gaming market, and dominates it to this day.

They don't dominate. Worldwide sales figures from Wikipedia:

Nintendo DS - 149.00 million, as of 30 September 2011
Wii - 89.36 million as of 30 September 2011
Game Boy Advance - 81.51 million, as of 30 September 2011
PlayStation Portable - 71.4 million, as of 14 September 2011
Xbox 360 - 57.6 million as of 4 November 2011
PlayStation 3 - 56 million as of 2 November 2011

They beat the Sony PlayStation 3, but only in the United States. But the lost to everyone else every other place in the world. That doesn't obscure the fact that they sell a ton of games and they finally started to make back some of their development costs. But they didn't dominate.

And there's no Microsoft magic formula that's going to save Windows Phone. They're already a long, long ways behind, their sales are abysmal, and their marketshare is shrinking.

I don't care what the haters say, I just got a Windows phone and I love it.