[jimtravis]

Although I am not in airports often, I do use public transportation daily, and see the influx of iPhones, and Blackberrys. I realize people have stability problems with WM (as some do with mobile OS X), but WM has been extremely stable, and reliable for me since I switched from Palm OS about 8 years ago. Based on all the horror stories I had heard, I was reluctant to switch; however, I was pleasantly surprised by how stable WM is, and am glad I made the switch 8 years ago.

I like the bigger screen WM devices like the Toshiba e830, Dell X51v, and HP210. I rarely use the stylus since even the standard WM today screen is finger friendly on a 4" screen. Many of the problems with WM on smartphones are due to the small screens used. I currently have a Touch Pro, and like device a lot. I do wish the screen was bigger, and will upgrade to the Touch Pro 2 when I can.

I do not own an iPhone because it is too feature deficient for my needs. I did purchase an iPod touch to experience mobile OS X, mobile Safari, and multi-touch (all overrated IMO).

Apple's marketing deserves a lot of the credit for the iPhone's quick success. Watching network TV during prime time for a week, and you will be exposed to about 20 iPhone commercials vs. zero for WM, a couple for Blackberry, and a few for various feature phones. Non-tech consumers equate mobile internet access, and cool apps exclusively with the iPhone because the iPhone is the only device they see on the TV commercials demonstrating those abilities. Many shows have multiple iPhone commericials in a one hour episode. The non-tech consumer does not realize other platforms had similar abilities, and many more features for years before the iPhone was released.

Apple did the same marketing with the iPod. Multiple iPod commercials per night on network TV, subways stations plastered with iPod ads, subway trains plastered with iPod ads, and multiple outdoor advertisements. Also, Apple marketed "cool" with their very successful silouette ads. Many younger iPod buyers were buying cool not the clickwheel, iTunes etc. Great marketing job by Apple. Apple continued the great marketing with the iPhone, and rode the coattails of the iPods success.