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Comment by hanley | Hacker News Reader

The Windows phone was loved because it had excellent Nokia hardware. The software was not loved and the app store was lacking.

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Owned one. It was a damn good phone, had a great UI that remains unsurpassed to this day, but it clearly came at least two years too late to gain the critical mass needed for a thriving ecosystem.

I miss having a copy and paste that worked so well.

I loved the UX on it too, but the crappy locked-down web browser killed it for me.. I don't even use apps, but since I couldn't load Firefox with uBlock on there, and there weren't any single-purpose apps, it was really rough

Software was really good though - just not widely used to get enough credit.

Sad that we are stuck with Android and iOS basically now.

The software was absolutely loved. You're right about the app store lacking though.

I'd still take WP over Android or iOS.

I think the software was loved. It was years before Apple and Android did their own 'natively digital' designs which echoed Metro and Zune's design aesthetic.

> The software was not loved and the app store was lacking.

The app store was definitely lacking. In my own circle of real life users I did not meet one person that did not really like the phone (software included). Granted this is just my own experience so very limited but its also a group of non-technical people just sharing with me. I never heard one complaint in fact it was usually more accolades.

The phone had great software and could run on incredibly low-end hardware like the Nokia 520. I had that phone and it was functional, fast and far better designed than any of the Android equivalent low-ends at the time.

Biggest flaw at the time was Google's shady nonsense involving banning Google Maps/Youtube on Windows Phone without a native app.

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