Let's face it.
Developer drive the technology. Developers create the Buzz. Developers build the future systems.
I have been an iPhone user for several years now and I have to admit, there is nothing better device than my iPhone. I use it most of the time. Here are some of the usages of my iPhone
So that said, I use iPhone a lot as a user.
I still have to get my hands on Windows Phone but if Windows Phone can do all the above, I am all for it.
But when it comes to developing applications for iPhone, Apple strategies suck. This is where Microsoft has an edge over Apple.
I am a developer and a PC user. By not providing developer APIs for Windows, Apple has restricted developers to either purchase Apple machines or just ignore it. Now developers like me who already have bunch of PCs are unlikely to go and buy another computer.
Besides that, Apple has not been a big help in marketing and promoting the Mono Touch. Mono Touch is a product developed by Novell to build iPhone/iPad applications using C# and .NET.
โMonoTouch allows developers to create C# and .NET based applications that run on Apple's iPhone and Apple's iPod Touch devices, while taking advantage of the iPhone APIs and reusing both code and libraries that have been built for .NET, as well as existing skills.โ
By ignoring Mono Touch development and not helping Novell, Apple is ignoring a huge developer community of close to 10 million .NET developers.
On the other hand, Microsoft has provided Windows Phone API for free and as a part of Visual Studio 2010 development. For me as a developer, I can write a Windows Phone application like any other Silverlight or XNA application with a few restrictions obviously.
Also, in developing counties like INDIA and China, having a Mac machine is not so easy and every developer does not have multiple machines. So that will also restrict Applie's iPhone development to developed countries only.
Thoughts? Let them keep coming !