[gcianc]

I had some reservations about WP7 myself. Devices, carriers, features, v1.0. Live tiles & menu list seemed cool but perhaps clunky vs 16 homescreen icons (easy today launcher) and other plugins for one-click app entry. The two biggest concerns for me were no Slingbox (it's now already available!) and no free turn-by-turn GPS (coming soon w/ Bing or AT&T $10/month now).

Any concern was eliminated upon power on & swipe unlock of the Focus. All that concern was simply baggage tossed to the curb.... really the impression is immediate and obvious... WP7 is simply fantastic!

First off the phone is totally responsive with both beautiful and useful visuals & transitions. The touch screen & system response is like an extension of your thumb, unlike any mobile software/system i've used. The system is rock solid/stable. Everything makes sense.... you click/press something happens... IMMEDIATELY without pause or delay. Carriers will love this (along with marketplace revenue sharing) cause you won't see WP7 devices frozen up & unresponsive in stores ala Droid & WM phones with 4 days worth of apps open. Oh yeah, and my ATT store had an Xbox360 black/slim in the "Windows Phone" wall.

I copied 8-10GB of music (16gb class6 card & hard reset) with Zune that was super fast (had to convert lossless WMA to 192kbps). No more creating a separate "phone" music library manually!

I cannot understate that everything on the phone just makes sense. I had to unlearn things to enter an IMAP email... pressing enter and seeing a sensible next step as opposed to knowing to click into a button to set something important up. 99% of Droid users (not super-tekkies but the actual people on Verizon looking for a decent, new device will love this and IMHO switch in great numbers off BB too.

One Windows Live & one FB login populates my photo hub, contacts (info & thumbnail photos) - no lockup or freezing. The experience is simply phenomenal (delightful to quote the other Steve). That is before you click into Market with hundreds of good free apps - some of which look better than iPhone/Android.

I look at my HD2 which even if t could run WP7 has lame button configurations, power in a bad spot and no dedicated camera button. Puke.

I really hate to even mention Apple, RIM or Android but but...

The mandatory button configuration WP7 alone should be lauded as simply brilliant. 3 front buttons are perfect when using apps or navigating the phone. PERFECT. No stupid carrier or OEM stuff (see samsung continuum extra screen) that will fragment & waste developer resources.. if not further lock you to one carrier (perhaps selling an exclusive device with exclusive button or whatever).

Bing Local Search is MIND BOGGLING. You all saw the "sushi demos". It's really like that. The google search app (free in market) is lacking in both results and appearance/usability (need to click small links, etc as if designed for a PC). The WM6 Bing app search/local is simply pathetic in comparison. GoogleWP7/Bing6 gives local "pizza" shop results miles/cities away. As if it's mixing webpages and real stores.

WP7 gives a local yellowpages.com ad place and then 100% dead on nearby results. Two clicks (or one long hold and say "local pizza").

It hurts to pickup a non-WP7 device now. Really it's just that good, clean, smooth, fast, responsive, etc.