[Metrop0218]

WP8 has been gaining momentum [1]; brushing it aside is a mistake. I also wouldn't count out WinRT. Surface 2 and the Nokia Lumia 2520 have received relatively favorable reviews. I don't expect their sales to double overnight or anything like that, but I expect they'll increase steadily throughout 2014.

Full disclosure: Windows Phone employee

[1] http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/29/5041666/nokia-lumia-sales...

[csmuk]

Ugh sorry to throw this at you (nothing personal) but here's how I see it...

Full disclosure: OP, long term Microsoft customer, ex MSDN premium sub, ex-registered gold parnership, 25 years working with Microsoft software and ex MCDBA, MCSD, ex WinPhone user (710, 820). Hey I even have a book on DOS signed by Gates from a 1990 PCUG meeting I attended.

Note the number of ex'es above. Even people like myself with vested interest have given the whole platform the finger due to the amount of crack smoking going on in the last couple of years.

Realistically, this is what it looks like to us. Not just me; this is the talk around the gum tree amongst the sector in the UK:

1. WinRT is an utter failure and is going to die. Even Microsoft is pretty sure about this now[1]. We've been telling clients not to even poke it with a 20 foot long stick becuase our stuff doesn't work on it (we have a desktop/COM broker that talks to our web app). It's a support nightmare. People just think they're getting a cheap PC. Instead they get a laggy bastardised half-finished OS which sometimes throws the desktop in your face with a copy of Office that is pure sufferance to use.

2. I've said positive things about WP8. It's not terrible. However WP is only selling because the handsets are low priced compared to the competition and aggressive marketing. Regardless of sales, I doubt a single penny of profit has turned up yet. Not only that, a lot of us devs who would possibly build something for it are put off by the whole buy/sell crack smoking, the fact that WP7 users were left in the shit and the completely closed nature of the platform. Also, mummy darling and Vicky Pollard still want an iPhone as do I because it's just nice [2] and not some lump of soulless plastic farted out of a tellytubby.

It's only my Unix/Linux wizardry that has kept me sane all these years.

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/26/microsoft-...

[2] nice is equivalent to quality here in the form discussed in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Persig.

Edit: this is designed to be comedic venting rather than a flame.

[riffraff]

> and not some lump of soulless plastic farted out of a tellytubby.

You are certainly aware of the latest line of cheap plastic iphones in primary colors?