I disagree. The vast majority of people don't give a doodah about if it's Apple/Microsoft/Google. It's only once you get onto forums like this where people want to spend more time fiddling with a phone than actually using it to make calls/email/text etc that you get the blind brand loyalty.
Android has done incredably well in a short time scale, not least because Google have bought market share by in effect giving it to manufacturers for free so unsurprisingly allowed for cometative pricing. The only credable opposition in the smartphone market has been the closed, expensive Apple option which, with all the will in the world is one, expensive (albeit it superbly put together and game changing) handset on a few select carriers. I know plenty of "average" users that have Android phones, not because they can roll their own ROM, or even know where the gabillion tweaks are even if they wanted to use them, but because it was cheaper than iPhone and provided most of the same features. Outside of the geeks it's often a compromise device for people that would have had an iPhone but don't want to spend £500 on a mobile phone.
The danger Android has is it's heading the same way Windows Mobile went. Increasing fragmentation of the underlying OS versions and hardware standards is making it increasingly difficult for new quality Apps to be developed. Whilst having 100 million apps makes a great headline, having a choice between 2000 fart apps is less interesting.
WP7 has introduced an alternative to the two incumbants, and despite what some of the people that will hate it becuase it's MS and not Android will say, it's actually an impressive OS that arguably moves things along for the vast majority of users. Given it's in effect V1.0 with 1.1 and 1.5 due over the next few months, coupled with the Nokia deal I think people underestimate just how well it could actually do.
I'm even tempted to compare WP7 (especially with the Nokia deal if it's done right) with the launch of Xbox which had the playstation/sony fans laughing they're heads off at the idea of MS producing a decent gaming system to compete against Sony or Sega.
Interestingly the WP7 market place is at 8000 apps and climbing at a rate that matched Apple and actually exceed Android on release.
Arguably the market has moved on and we're in a different place now, but as far as I'm concerned it's a good start, has promise and can only be good for the market bringing in greater choice.
One thing is clear. With the announcement of the Nokia deal it kills once and for all the rumours and wishfull thinking that WP7 is going to be dropped by MS and they will stop doing mobile devices. Piece together WP7/XBox/Nokia/ARM and system of a chip stuff talked about lately and i'm optimistic there's going to be increasingly interesting "stuff" coming.
