My beef with windows phones starts off with being a Zune owner. Now I purchased my brown Zune when woot was clearing out the 30gb refurbs so I wasn't drinking the coolaid, just grabbing a bargain. While the Zune has proven a far superior device to my 20gb 3rd gen ipod, and even my fieance's 5th gen nano there are some issues:
1) Microsoft chose a proprietary physical mechanism for docking. For the ipod this was fine since they were first to market. For the Zune this was a death blow. Not many accessories came out other than what microsoft produced.
2) Due to a proprietary software interface even if you have a USB interface in your car that is USB and Ipod compatible you cannot interface your Zune to it. With the exception of a Sync based car stereo and some recent high end Chevy stereos your zune cannot be controlled with the steering wheel controls.
3) The one add on that microsoft kept promising to allow existing stereos to use the Zune directly was put out by soundgate. The issue here was that it only works with a limited cross section of cars, and even soundgate couldn't get the story straight on their product. Some pages claimed that it only charged the zune, others claimed full functionality.
4) Promised functionality never really formed. I have a full microsoft environment in my home. WHS, WMC, xbox, zune, etc. Transfering shows from my WMC recordings was never as easy as promised. WHS never really integrated with the zune software to centralize the library for whole home access, and xbox functionality was somewhat sad.
The problem with the Windows phone is that I'm not seeing any indication from Microsoft that they have fixed the Zune's shortcomings. I would like to know this before I invest:
1) Will a Lumia (or any other WP7 device) work with existing Non-ipod accessories like the USB based alarm clocks?
2) Will a WP7 device work with any USB enabled car stereo? Either OEM or after market. Or am I limited to "Microsoft blessed" stereos? My Android phone works with any USB stereo and does this by acting like a standard USB Storage device.
3) Will microsoft start updating the phones independent of the carriers? Even then how long will a phone be supported? My android phone (Mytouch 4g) was easily rooted and is now running ICS. While I know rooting and flashing isn't standard, android is open source which means I can do this. Microsoft WP7 probably won't be as flexible.
4) Did microsoft give up on these proprietary connectors? Give me a mini or micro USB please! Something where I can keep two of the same cable in my car, and not have to dig through a box of wires.
I love my android phone. I owned a G1 from the preorder, and moved to a mytouch a year and a half ago. In a year I may upgrade and wouldn't mind moving to a WP7, or swapping my work blackberry for one. Just as long as I know answers to the above.