I, for one, would love to get my hands on a good Nokia Lumia 800 running Windows Phone 7, but despite reading about them for months-to-years, they're never available when I go to the store. MSFT could learn a lot from Apple about not making announcements until products are ready. It's very frustrating.
Apple is a US based company. They release their products in the US. If you're outside of the US, you're waiting months or years to get your hands on the new iPhone.
Nokia is a Finnish based company. They release their products globally, and generally the US is lower on that list. Nokia treats the US how Apple treats other countries. It's not that different.
That's an interesting point that I hadn't really considered, thanks. That said, Microsoft is an American company and perhaps they should make their own hardware if they really want to compete in the US phone market....
There are certain markets where I feel Microsoft has to be careful in. Making Microsoft brand PCs or phones would get dangerous for their antitrust ruling which only recently ceased. Consoles have a long precedent of having the software directly tied to the hardware, as do MP3 players. PCs and phones, not so much. If Microsoft were to start making their own phones and ended up gaining significant marketshare, there's the chance they could be cited again (though not as strictly if they were not actively anti-competitive). Even Apple has come under federal investigation for potential abuse of their iPod monopoly.
Apple is an interesting case in that they've been allowed to control every aspect of their system because they have such an insignificant marketshare. Their aggressive actions in the mobile arena coupled with their unbridled success may very well see them in the same boat Microsoft was in during the late 90s.
