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To boss around the carriers, you need a killer product. A product so guaranteed to sell that the carriers will bend over backwards to sign it up.
How many phones have there been like that in the US market? As an outsider, I can only count the RAZR and iPhone in recent years.
What do they have in common? Fantastic industrial design and a good deal of hype. Both product were lacking in certain areas, but that never seemed to matter. All people saw was how gorgeous they looked (including the UI, in the case of the iPhone).
No Windows Mobile phone has managed such an aesthetically pleasing design so far. Some have been "quite nice", but nothing ahead of the game. For example, the HTC Touch is "quite nice", but it's still very plasticky. It doesn't feel like a premium product.
There's also the matter of positioning. Windows Mobile is still seen by Microsoft, the manufacturers and the carriers as an enterprise thing. Windows Mobile has been designed and marketed in that way since its creation and it's a self-perpetuating circle. Even recently Bill Gates said that Microsoft has no plans to make an iPhone rival.
But that's not to say that it's the only way for a manufacturer to make money. Nokia haven't released a high volume chic phone in a long, long time but are enjoying 39% market share and record profits. Sometimes being the carriers' bitch pays off. It certainly has for HTC.
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