The new UI paradigm was fantastic for users. That was never the problem with the Windows Phone. I'm not sure if you ever used one, but I loved it. It's problem was always the ecosystem. The device was fast even on low end hardware, yet felt fresh and productive. It got out of the way. I always felt the tabs were a couple of points too large. I never wrote an app for it so suspect it sucked.
On the phone, peoples social media was all integrated into one hub and while great for the user, it reduced the platforms to a transport layer - which did not appeal to them. Youtube was a big deal at the time, and didn't want their app on the new competitors platform. Microsoft wrote some, and they were taking offline. On the Windows phone, it would have been a few steps away from a storage platform.
Microsoft had a brand reputation problem at the time. Windows is what your parents used for work. Apple had an emotional connection of being fresh and hip. They had the iPod and people dancing in silhouette.
iTunes was available on Mac. You could run it on Windows, if you shut everything else down - the thing was a massive resource hog. I'm so scarred by it that even owning a Mac now I never user it.
The Zune app was a joy to use in comparison. I used Zune app for years without even owning a Zune. You had to use iTunes to sync your iPod. The older portable MP3 players were storage devices that you just copied files onto the device.
The end user experience was not the problem.
edit: some of this might be slightly inaccurate since I'm going from memory here. Happy to be corrected by someone who remembers better than I.
I had an iPhone at that point. I remember playing with Windows Phone 7 at a store and my gut feeling wasn't great about it.
Perhaps it was a combination of that text based tab control or it was the black & white + flat + text design they adopted for live tile and for the UI controls.
It's been a while, so it's possible that it wasn't as bad as I remember it.
On the phone, peoples social media was all integrated into one hub and while great for the user, it reduced the platforms to a transport layer - which did not appeal to them. Youtube was a big deal at the time, and didn't want their app on the new competitors platform. Microsoft wrote some, and they were taking offline. On the Windows phone, it would have been a few steps away from a storage platform.
Microsoft had a brand reputation problem at the time. Windows is what your parents used for work. Apple had an emotional connection of being fresh and hip. They had the iPod and people dancing in silhouette.
iTunes was available on Mac. You could run it on Windows, if you shut everything else down - the thing was a massive resource hog. I'm so scarred by it that even owning a Mac now I never user it.
The Zune app was a joy to use in comparison. I used Zune app for years without even owning a Zune. You had to use iTunes to sync your iPod. The older portable MP3 players were storage devices that you just copied files onto the device.
The end user experience was not the problem.
edit: some of this might be slightly inaccurate since I'm going from memory here. Happy to be corrected by someone who remembers better than I.