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Comment by blauditore | Hacker News Reader

Windows Phone could have been that platform. Yes, it was also backed by a large company, but:

- There were multiple manufacturers.

- Despite of MS' bad reputation, the platform was surprisingly open and flexible. Not as much as Android, but certainly more than iOS.

- UI-wise, it was on par with the two big players. I would argue it was even better, at least more innovative.

Unfortunately, it failed due to devs ignoring it (especially large players), and probably MS' notorious schizophrenic behavior resulting in constant zig-zag courses.

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Definitely - I tried an HTC Mozart for a while and was astonished at how pleasant it was to use, particularly given that I hate using Windows on the desktop.

There was no decent map for car navigation, but that could have been reasonably easy to fix.

HERE was the default one on Nokia phones, and it was great. For car navigation, it was better than current Google Maps and HERE WeGo implementations on Android, and on par with Apple Maps since iOS 10 (but like Apple Maps, awful search and POI database)

I've heard it is good, though I don't think it was available at the time I was using the Mozart. What I did have was "Orange maps":

https://mspoweruser.com/orange-maps-for-windows-phone-7-come...

This was OK when it worked, but it had a habit of freezing the phone and requiring a reboot. Also, it would refuse to start if there was no mobile signal, so I would frequently have to drive a few miles from my destination (I always seemed to end up somewhere with no signal) before I could start navigating home.

>Despite of MS' bad reputation, the platform was surprisingly open and flexible.

How do you remove Microsoft from a Windows phone and not have to use any of their services or be tracked by them?

>Unfortunately, it failed due to devs ignoring it

I don't think the devs, they had remaining, could keep up with all of the osbourning they were doing.

I agree. There is really just one smartphone OS out there now with Android gone. I don’t want to touch anything that has been near google.

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