Windows Phone was getting great. Their user interface (live tiles) is still superior to iOS or Android. Their hardware was far superior and their cameras were way ahead (40 megapixel)
Where they failed was on the apps end. Many popular app providers boycotted Microsoft (Snapchat being one) which rendered the phones inferior to the competition.
Good point. In post #20, I mentioned the opposition to Windows entering the phone market. They backstabbed and kneecapped so many developers on the desktop that nobody trusted them. Every other developer expected MS, when it got the majority of the phone market, to start creating their own native apps and choking off other developers like they did with Windows desktop. Just about every developer outside of Redmond was united against them.
I agree. Live Tiles was a fantastic feature on my Windows Phones (920, 1520, and 950XL). I had both a personal and corporate email account when I was on Windows Phone and I was able to pin a tile for each one along with a calendar tile for each one. It made it easy to see at a glance (another great feature) what my next upcoming personal and business appointment was.
I also had server side rules to keep track of alert messages that came in. I was able to pin those specific email folders to tiles as well.
Live Tiles is perfectly suited to a smartphone and was miles ahead of simple rows and columns of app icons. Microsoft really had a good thing with their customizable data-driven tile design.
I had to switch to the iPhone and I miss Live Tiles every day.