Way more people eat MacDonalds than at high-end restaurants, but few would argue that MacDonalds is the "leading edge" of cuisine. And if you were to characterize the leading edge as the product with the biggest userbase, Android's is larger than iOS's.

Well, Android has more users than iOS, which would make it analogous to McDonald's. Popularity doesn't automatically mean something is leading edge, but certainly the fact that something is extremely unpopular like Windows 8 makes it unlikely to have much impact.

>the fact that something is extremely unpopular like Windows 8 makes it unlikely to have much impact.

Not necessarily. When Metro came out the design was definitely talked and made an impact. The market unpopularity, after that, doesn't effect the initial impact.

I would argue that McDonald's is certainly on the leading edge of cuisine. Their logistics and quality control (perhaps you would prefer to call it "consistency control") are impressive and their cultural, economical, and dietary influence is enormous (for better or for worse).

So by your logic, Android is the McDonald's.

The logic is that "leading edge" and "popular" are not necessarily related.

But surely the fact that very few use Windows 8 could signify that it is not the leading edge, because it is unpopular.

Sure, it could. It could also be ahead of its time. Do you have an argument as to why Windows 8 and Windows Phone is not leading edge, besides the fact that it isn't very popular?

Because Windows 8 is kind of a hot mess?

If they could jettison all of the holdovers from Windows XP and replace things like the file browser and command console with "Metro Native" apps, it would still be pretty to look at, but painful to live with.

If you want to talk about leading edge, look to webOS which was ahead of its time in significant ways.

In so far as it gives people what they want for cheap and is widely available, sure.