I suspect it's the other way around. MSFT bet the company on WP7, clearly has spent oodles of time and effort on it, but all of the launch devices were snoozefests - some were outright, lazy ripoffs of the OEMs' existing Android phones.
There was nothing unique, compelling, or, well, anything about these phones. Most were even exceptionally crappy with the exception of the Samsung. It's clear that none of the OEMs were willing to invest the resources to design and build a piece of hardware that was compelling.
I don't blame Microsoft for shopping around for an "official" manufacturer after that little debacle.
And I say: Finally! One of the weaknesses of Android has always been this clearly demarcated line between hardware and software, as necessitated by its licensing terms and mission statement. iPhones don't suffer from the effects of this - the software plays closely with the hardware, and it shows. With beautiful industrial design (honestly, I'm a fan of this new phone) and tight hardware-software integration, Microsoft can stand a real chance. I say, about time.
Probably was necessary to keep the beautiful hardware intact to change the guts completely in less than a year. Look at iPhone 4S. Almost no visual changes in exterior in a year and a half and the OS didn't change that much either... why change the looks of something that is already so beautiful.
It takes 18 months to design a phone and get it to market(along with the carrier approval and changes and all that nonsense). The MS deal was announced in Feb of this year. What did you expect?
There was nothing unique, compelling, or, well, anything about these phones. Most were even exceptionally crappy with the exception of the Samsung. It's clear that none of the OEMs were willing to invest the resources to design and build a piece of hardware that was compelling.
I don't blame Microsoft for shopping around for an "official" manufacturer after that little debacle.
And I say: Finally! One of the weaknesses of Android has always been this clearly demarcated line between hardware and software, as necessitated by its licensing terms and mission statement. iPhones don't suffer from the effects of this - the software plays closely with the hardware, and it shows. With beautiful industrial design (honestly, I'm a fan of this new phone) and tight hardware-software integration, Microsoft can stand a real chance. I say, about time.