Windows Phone, Microsoft’s 2010 answer to the iPhone and Android, was a classic case of the bad Microsoft. Prerelease reviews of the first Windows Phone OS were very negative, yet Microsoft released it anyway, with the same suicidal stubbornness it later showed in the Windows 8 disaster. The obstinacy continued with Windows 7.5. Eventually, Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 started to show a glimmer of rational thinking at Microsoft, but felt like halfway efforts.Soon, Microsoft will release Windows Phone 10, which it calls Windows 10 for Phones to remove some of the sting of the previous versions and take some cred from the well-received Windows 10.
This time, Microsoft need not be embarrassed. Based on my testing of a late beta version, Windows Phone 10 is a decent smartphone operating system, one that I wish it had released in 2010. Windows Phone 10 and the included apps are not as good as what iOS or Android offer today, but they are reasonably capable and offer sufficient capabilities for many users.
