Windows Phone

Lately I've been testing out a Nokia Windows phone for work. Currently we have none in our catalog; employees procuring a phone through the company choose from iPhone, a couple of Android models, and Blackberry. Some upcoming infrastructure changes have me testing out Windows phones.

To the surprise of those who know me even just a little bit, I like it. I like Windows Phone 8. In fact I'd say I like it more than my Android Galaxy S3, which feels cluttered by comparison. It's not an iPhone, but it's slick, feels solid, and has good battery life.

This is a bit of a surprise to many because most of my career has been built on supporting Apple devices. I've been using, supporting, and even taking apart Apple products since I was in college - over twenty years - and because of that many people assume I'm an Apple fangirl.

But, I'm not. Apple makes a great product, but the Apple and Microsoft of today are not your mother's Apple and Microsoft.

For one thing, in the mobile space, their roles are practically reversed. Microsoft may continue to dominate the desktop, but PC sales are led by Apple, and while Android dominates to mobile OS space Apple's iOS is still the market leader, even in the enterprise. Android suffers all the challenges of the early PC software industry without Microsoft's then advantage - a market-dominating vendor (IBM) to license to. If anything Apple is the IBM of modern mobile. No one ever goes wrong picking Apple to support as a mobile platform.

Windows Phone 8 has the same interface as Windows 8's Modern interface. There are tiles on the home screen that can be moved, and snap neatly into place. Moving around a lot of tiles can be cumbersome but it's not terrible, especially compared to iOS icon dragging. All apps are just a swipe away.

I was able to set up my Gmail and, yes, Apple email on it pretty easily, along with a notification center for Hotmail and Facebook. I'm starting to shop around for apps. While it's true there are many fewer, I do recall Apple making arguments about quantity of apps being less important than quality. I'm still assessing the quality of apps on Windows Phone 8.

One thing my executives will like is that Office is on this phone. While most phones can display Office documents, and I'm not sure who will want to get in-depth on Powerpoint or Excel on a phone, it's nice to know I can do it.

So, yeah, Windows Phone 8. Not bad, and even a refreshing change of pace.