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My ETF with Verizon is very high because I have 2 Smart Phones and 1 4G USB Line on that Subscription, and I am on limited income because I receive Disability from The U.S.A. Government as my only source of Income!

Your ETF is calculated per line..so if you had 2 smartphones and 1 4g USB thats 3 different lines.

The smartphone ETF is $350 and then $10 is taken off it every month. So even if you canceled the droid phone line within a day of getting it (ie you pay the full $350), you'd still save money.

And as I keep seeming to have to constantly point out to you, the point is still irrelevant. For the first 18 odd months of it's life Android wasn't available on that many devices. WP7 was available on what... at least 10, right off the bat?

WP7 has already outsold anything that Android sold in its first year and, as you say, this can be attributed to the fact that (unlike Android) it was embraced by a large number of OEMs from day one. However, you insist on holding MS to a higher standard than Google and Apple and expect record-breaking first quarter sales. It doesn't matter how many phones are available when the product hasn't been out long enough to attract customers.

Anyway, I don't know why I'm bothering to argue with someone who's clearly trolling a story about a phone OS that he's not interested in.

Yes, and the lovely droid is still playing with all its fragmentation issues. If ms really wants to do something serious they need to get cracking on Windows Phone 7.5 in a big hurry.

Fragmentation issues? Really? The only people I hear complaining about fragmentation are the critics who don't own and Android device. 90% of Android devices out there are running either 2.1 or 2.2 and it makes virtually no difference to those users which one they are using because the vast majority of apps are available for both versions.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20044204-17.html

It's weird how people argue and argue about who might have what market share.

It's interesting how an entry from MS is dismissed outright, but almost every article across the web about WebOS is wistful and glowing with an almost nostalgic desire for success.

I think it comes down to the general unhipness of Microsoft, and the sense that Palm somehow 'deserves' their shot at the handheld market.

I can't help but think the best thing Microsoft could do to become successful would be to ditch Balmer. Not because he's done anything especially wrong (and not that he hasn't), but because he's pretty much the last remnant of what defined Microsoft for the geek world. Bill Gates left and has since squeezed his way onto almost everyone's good side (except for the almost comically ignorant devotees of other platforms that will never, till their dying breath, let go of what was to them the most important war of their lifetime). Balmer, with his...jarring Matt Foley voice and a personality that leaves a strange 1990s aftertaste, no matter how good the businessman, is holding the company back in an era where opinion is becoming increasingly powerful (also not something I'm entirely keen on, but is somehow inescapable).

its not Balmer... He might not have the charisma or the looks reqd in the tech world PR games, specially considering Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison. Google Founders etc but he's leading the biggest software company in the world with a half a trillion ecosystem pretty well.

The problem with MS isn't simple, there are managers after managers you'd have to negotiate when someone thinks of a product / solution and build it. Thats probably the reason why MS usually has multiple solutions for the same segment for the same functionality Office live,365.... WMP,MC,Zune

Then there is the fact that anything disruptive from MS will be disruptive to its current products/solutions in the first place, requiring it to streamline and bind the product onto its current product portfolio, which means talking to a dozen different teams etc. ex: PowerPivot which other companies dont have

Another thing unique to MS is that they have to invent,develop and build everything from scratch. unlike Google and Apple who lift stuff off opensource and polish / market them better, which adds to the delay. IE9 vs webkit based Safari and Chrome..

Apple and Google's rise has kinda helped limit the internal squabbling at MS a bit and probably given it a renewed purpose unlike the 00-2007 period. There's been a sea change in quality of MS products since Office 2007. hell even WP7 for all the heartburn of updates is slick OS, that gets lots and lots things right - the first time, but then like all MS products people take tonne of things for granted these days.

Many techies still seem to live in the 90's. The situation in 2011 has completely changed. Microsoft has gone from monopoly which everyone loved to deride and hate - to the only company that can compete with and break the oligarchy of Apple and Google's offline and online dominance and competition is good for us consumers....

WP7 has already outsold anything that Android sold in its first year and, as you say, this can be attributed to the fact that (unlike Android) it was embraced by a large number of OEMs from day one. However, you insist on holding MS to a higher standard than Google and Apple and expect record-breaking first quarter sales. It doesn't matter how many phones are available when the product hasn't been out long enough to attract customers.

Anyway, I don't know why I'm bothering to argue with someone who's clearly trolling a story about a phone OS that he's not interested in.

The smartphone market is a lot hotter now than it was back in 2008.

My point is really quite simple... People are sackriding WP7, when market data suggests it's sales aren't that impressive, and just presuming that it will overtake the iPhone with no evidence at all.

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