When you look at BB10 and WP8 in isolation they look great. They're pretty and have lots of attractive features and the launch events look very slick. You can see how other people might buy them.

But you'd never buy one yourself, because there's just nothing there you can't get on an iOS or Android device, at leats not enough to make any difference. So yes, maybe other people will but them, and maybe they'll get traction, so clearly they have a chance, but not me. I might think about it, but I'd never actually buy one. The problem is everyone thinks that way*.

Except for maybe 1% or 2%. But then you can always find 1% or 2% of people that'll do anything.

I would actually honestly consider Windows Phone 8 at this point. I'm much more of an Android guy though, where I can tweak things and break out of isolated app silos down to a shared file system. But then I almost have to carry an iPhone because that's where I make my living - building iOS apps. So Windows Phone 8 comes in a close third, but for reasons normal people (non-developers/hackers) don't have.

BlackBerry? There's nothing there I can't get from an Android phone.

I also like Windows Phone 8. I think it is very nearly as good as Android and iOS, it just needs a bit more traction to get devs on board. BB, there is just no reason to jump on that sinking ship.

"....They're not Apple, they're not the low-end provider, they're not Nokia, so they are in the middle and they do relatively low volumes,"

"...It's difficult to make great margins on that kind of volume - so I would say the outlook is quite negative them."

aka Microsoft

Defeat the NSA and use BBM...

> But you'd never buy one yourself, because there's just nothing there you can't get on an iOS or Android device, at leats not enough to make any difference.

Being someone who picked up a HTC Surround on launch day, followed by my Samsung Focus S, Nokia Lumia 900, Nokia Lumia 920 and soon a Lumia 925, along with a family that exclusively owns Windows Phone devices, I can say safely that you are 100% wrong.

There are plenty of things you do not get from Android or iOS that WP8 has to offer, especially if you already live in the MS ecosystem (Office 365, Windows 8, Xbox). People just care too much about Instagram and Zynga games, they ignore all the features and cool apps that are already available on the platform.

You've had 5 phones in 3 years and that's somehow supposed to convince us to move to your system for being better?

I've had 2 phones in that time, an HTC desire that lasted me 3 .5 years and a nexus 4 that I've had since replacing that and I expect to last me equally as long.

The point behind me going through five phones in three years is irrelevant except to point out my experience with it, I have always gone through phones quickly because I like having the latest and greatest, before I got my HTC Surround I had an Nokia N75, an iPhone 3GS and a Palm Pre Plus, I kept bouncing between platforms because none of them worked the way I would expect. With Windows Phone I finally found something that works the way I expected it to; hell, I originally got my HTC Surround solely to use as a developer device and get in on the marketplace early, it ended up being my everyday phone within a month.

You say that now, but seriously... go play with a Windows 8 phone for a while. I am not the biggest Microsoft fan, but they designed developed and sold their vision and it's actually pretty great. I find that between having an Android and Win8 phone, I've been gravitating toward using the Win8 more, simply because everything you do is just smooth and seamless. I imagine the experience is what Apple users expect from their products. Honestly, Android fails to deliver on that. Still, I love tinkering in Android.