[gjhuff]

I have had my Samsung SII Galaxy Epic Touch now for almost a year. I too had been a WM user going back to before the PPC days. I enjoyed my Touch Pro 2 and was looking forward to the Arrive. But when I went into the store to test it, I was very disappointed to find it was a locked in system similar to the IOs on IPhones, crippled with no ability to customize. I don't use a smart phone for music so its' dependence on Zune was a turnoff, as well as its' relative inability to work with my computer.

When I dared to criticize MS for Windows Phone 7, on this board, you'd think I farted in church. I was told that I really didn't need the features I'd come to like in WinMo, that Phone 7 was better and my intelligence was questioned for not falling in line like a sheep.

Eventually, I went with the SII Epic. Originally, it came with Android's Gingerbread which has been upgraded to ICS 4. I've been very happy with it - it does everything the Touch Pro 2 did and more with better hardware and a bigger screen. I can customize anything to my heart's content - launchers, ring tones, gps, hotspot etc..

Since then, Windows Phone 7 is sinking and taking Nokia along with it. MS has announced that Windows Phone 8, as did Phone 7, will not run on Phone 7 phones. Its' market share continues to sink - but we're told this is due to the stupid employees in carriers' stores who don't sell their customers on the advantages of WP 7 over IOS and Android. In the Sprint stores in my area, the Arrive is no longer on display.

I think the market has spoken here.