Windows Phone 7 (no "Series" any more, which is a shame because—other than Merc fanbois—who wouldn't want a 7 Series?) was always going to struggle.
Apple is, of course, the company getting all the love; the iPhone has been phenomenally successful. Android has finally started getting the handsets it deserves and now shows itself to be a capable, attractive, desirable platform. Windows Mobile, however, is widely hated, and is frankly dying where it sits. Windows Phone 7 is a necessary abandonment of Microsoft's cell phone legacy, but it also means that the new platform has to start from scratch. No pre-existing users, little pre-existing software, and two major competitors who are delivering a strongly competitive alternative.
As well as going up against this entrenched legacy, Redmond has the additional problem that Windows Phone 7 is, essentially, a version one product. Yes, I know Windows Mobile 6 is awful—every day I curse my Touch Pro for its hateful software—but in spite of its massively flawed user interface and weak kernel, it's a mature product, and this maturity has brought features like enterprise configurability, multitasking, copy and paste, and a range of other benefits.
I'm not going to pretend that Windows Mobile was a viable basis for future development. The entire front-end needs to be replaced with something that's finger-friendly, and the kernel needs to be replaced with something offering true memory protection and unlimited multitasking. There are also substantial benefits to tighter control of the platform and its hardware, so I certainly understand and agree with the broad direction of Windows Phone 7.
And, as version one products go, it doesn't look too bad. I think the UI concept is strong and striking; in limited usage it seems to work well. In certain areas, Microsoft's product is clearly better thought-out than Apple's—a "glanceable" interface that tells you what you need to know, the hubs concept that brings together different but related data silos, the connectivity with social networking, and wireless syncing. It also has a development environment that will (I believe) have lower entry barriers than Apple's and make it easier for developers to produce high-quality applications that fit well within the OS (something never achieved on Windows Mobile).
Microsoft has certainly embraced online services in a way that Apple has been reluctant to do. The Xbox Live integration also looks interesting; although the scale of the markets is such that buy-in from Xbox gamers is never going to make or break a mobile platform, it should just enable gaming experiences of a kind previously unavailable on phones.
But version one of the product is going to give up a lot. Enterprise configurability is unlikely (so no policies to lock out cameras, prohibit application installation, etc.). Copy and paste almost certainly won't be ready for version one. Even Windows Phone 7's desirable development environment has a downside; there won't be any native code development on Windows Phone any time soon. Perhaps most importantly of all, the initial version won't support multitasking of third-party applications.
Multitasking matters
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