[miamicanes]

Personally, I wish HTC had the sense to make at least one model officially capable of running BOTH Windows Mobile and Android. Not necessarily at the same time, but trivially re-flashable from one to the other (if not dynamically launchable via HaRet). Even if it meant paying the "Microsoft Tax" for all of them, regardless of whether the purchasers intended to use WM or Android.

IMHO, it's stupid for HTC to NOT make Android officially available for current models like the Raphael. Spread around all their customers (Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, and the rest), the cost of porting Android would be almost pocket change for HTC, and it would enable them all to dip their toes into the Android market and sell a phone capable of running fully-implemented Android without the risk of ending up with unsalable inventory if it were to somehow flop.

Late last year, Sprint made a point of declaring publicly that they didn't think Android was ready for prime time. Objectively, it probably wasn't... IF the phones had to be able to stand entirely on their own merits on the day they hit the shelves back in October or November. On the other hand, if the phones were perfectly capable of running Windows Mobile should the buyer decide Android just wasn't quite working out for him, the fact that the customer could have hedged his bets and bought a phone capable of being easily reflashed to WM would have eliminated most of the risk involved with buying into a platform that's still kind of "bleeding edge".

Ironically, if you check the Raph section at xda-developers, the Raph seems to be the one platform going absolutely *nowhere* Android-wise, because nobody has the hardware docs needed to implement the drivers for it. It's sad, because out of all the various WM phones out right now, the Raph is the best hardware platform of all for Android.