For most people, it doesn't really matter what OS their phone is running. As long as it makes and receives phone calls and texts, they just don't care. Sooner or later those people will be buying smartphones because feature phones are on the way out.
WP* will suit them just as well as iOS or Android.
Yeah that's the thing. At the moment mostly only tech savvy people have smartphones, they care about Apple (IOS) or they don't (Android)
When everyone with basic phones goes to get a new phone they will go with a simple smartphone that is cheap. I assume that this is the market MS is going for.
When Mom & Dad go shopping for a tablet for junior this Christmas they will grab the $199 Walmart tablet running Windows because that's the computer they have at home. Perhaps I will bump this thread in December because this is exactly what is going to happen.
The vast majority of people do not give a crap what OS their stuff is, just that it goes on Facebook and can play Angry Birds.
MS should just bundle Angry Birds with the OS and it will sell a trillion copies a second to the soccer mom's shopping at WalMart. (not a trillion) I'm sure that Bill can slap out a Angry Birds clone in a weekend in basic. They should just get Bill to do it.