Has any phone in 2013 made you switch platforms?

We're in that final stretch of months
before 2013 officially comes to an end,
and it's been a pretty wild year for
mobile all year long.

In the beginning, we saw BlackBerry's
plans and release of BlackBerry 10. In
the following months we saw the
release of two of the most anticipated
Android flagships of the year, the HTC
One and the Samsung Galaxy S4. We
finally found out the dark and
mysterious details of Google's "X"
phone, which turned out to be none
other than the Moto X, which featured
just about none of the things leaks,
rumors and hopes predicted that it
would. Nokia pushed the envelope even
further with their Nokia Lumia line,
famous for its notably good cameras
for a smartphone, by releasing the
Nokia Lumia 1020 with its 41-megapixel
camera. We also have phones like the
iPhone 5s, the Nexus 5, the Galaxy
Note 3 and the LG G2 . Yep, it's been a
pretty good year for mobile.

New phones are released all the time.
But regardless of how many phones
can be produced, each smartphone is
more than likely using one of four of
the most popular mobile platforms that
we have available to us today: iOS,
Android, Windows Phone or BlackBerry.

These platforms are constantly
changing and tweaking in order to
become the best, and I have to say
that this year has had one of the
most interesting combinations of new
hardware and new software I have
seen in a while. If you guys have had
any thoughts like I have, you've
probably considered jumping from
whatever phone it is that you have to
something new - perhaps you even
made the switch.

Did any new phones tickle your fancy
enough to make you switch this year?
One did for me (get it? One ? Ha!)
Actually, I should say two . Initially, I
was more intrigued by the Galaxy S4.
However, just as I had suspected in
previous thoughts mentioned across my
articles, there is such a thing as a
phone that's too big for some people.

It seems that a 5" screen is just too
much for me to be able to hold without
dropping onto the floor, my face, or
whatever else I happen to be holding
my phone over. Aside from that and
some apparent issue with overheating
(as in the phone felt hot - really hot
- but didn't show much adverse
effects from it) the phone would have
been dandy. I really did like the
camera and all of the features. But
the fact that I couldn't even hold the
phone comfortably bothered me more
than anything, and I ended up
switching out for the HTC One.
Switching from iOS back to Android
was a lot easier than I thought it
would be, mostly because I still
remembered Android as being the slow,
buggy OS that it was back in 2010. But
once I decided to make the jump back
to Android from iOS after being mostly
happy with iOS for the better part of
two years, I was honestly surprised at
how well Android had adapted.
Whether
it was the advances that Android made
over the past couple of years, or
perhaps just the fact that I had
lowered my expectations when I
switched to the One and my
expectations were surpassed, I am still
to this day pretty darn happy with my
One. Although I will once again stress
that the purple tint on my camera is
still an issue that wasn't fixed since
updating to the official Android 4.3
build. Aside from that, the phone is
fantastic. Great build, great feel,
great battery life, and runs smooth
like butter.

I even entertained the thought of
switching to BlackBerry or Windows
Phone as well, considering the only
hands-on experience I've had with the
devices are limited to retail store
displays. BlackBerry was intriguing; I
was interested in seeing how
BlackBerry 10 worked on the
traditional BlackBerry form factor of
having a small screen and a full
physical QWERTY keyboard. I was also
intrigued by the Z10, BlackBerry's
first attempt at what might be
considered a more "normal" look for a
modern smartphone. However, the lack
of applications made specifically for
BlackBerry wasn't exactly inviting. I
will admit, it is nice that several what
I would consider "important"
applications that were initially made
for Android can be "sideloaded" onto
BlackBerry 10, but in the end I wasn't
exactly thrilled with the idea. The same
"lack of application" problem stopped
me from Windows Phone, but definitely
to a lesser degree.
I was mostly
interested in the fact that the Lumia,
at the time, had some of the best
cameras that a smartphone could have.
I also dig the minimalistic interface of
Windows Phone.
Overall, I'm happy I switched to the
One. It's not the first time I've
switched, nor will it be the last, but I
am happy that I was able to switch to
a phone that I thought I would like,
and ended up actually liking it, because
I'm not always that lucky.
Readers, did you find a phone this
year that made you switch platforms?
Which platform did you come from, and
which one did you go to? Are you
happy with the decision? Let us know
your thoughts in the comments below!

Why It Doesn't Make Sense ForMicrosoft To Make Its Own Phone

Since last October, Microsoft has been reorganizing itself around the idea that it's a "devices and services" company . The company has plenty of services, but not so many devices. If it's really going to become a devices company, then it stands to reason that it needs a few more devices. 

The most important missing device from Microsoft's line up is a smartphone. So, naturally, it would make sense for Microsoft to build its own smartphone, right? Well, never say never, but we don't think Microsoft is going to enter the smartphone business despite the fact that it's focusing itself on devices and services. 

There are three reasons for Microsoft to steer clear of the smartphone business: 1. Carrier distribution is complicated. 2. Nokia and HTC are making good Windows Phones. 3. Microsoft's Windows Phone failures don't have anything to do with bad hardware. After Microsoft released its own tablet, the Surface, chatter of a Surface smartphone started kicking up . 

There are, however, many important differences between the tablet market and the smartphone market. In the tablet market, Microsoft just has to ship the Surface and let users fire it up with WiFi. To enter the phone market, Microsoft would have to build a global distribution network, as well as secure contracts with carriers around the world. Each carrier is going to have its own specifications, and its own demands. That's a headache Microsoft doesn't want, or need. Look at Apple. Despite selling the most influential phone, it's only on 240 carriers. Samsung, by contrast, is on 800 carriers. 

This is part of the reason Apple's iPhone isn't winning on market share, while at the same time the iPad remains relatively strong in tablet market share. There's another key difference between the Surface tablet and the current smartphone market. Microsoft's PC partners weren't making great computers with strong brands. Quick quiz: What's the best Android smartphone on the market? If you're paying attention at all, you would probably guess the Samsung S4, or maybe just, Samsung. (The correct answer is actually the HTC One, but that's another story. The important thing here is that there is at least one well-known Android brand for hardware.) Next question! What's the best Windows-based computer on the market? You're probably stumped. 

This is a problem for Microsoft. If a consumer walks into Best Buy, he or she has no problem asking for a MacBook, or an iPad. Which Windows- based PC would he or she ask for? An Acer Aspire S7? An Asus Zenbook Prime? The Sony Vaio Pro 13? They don't exactly roll off the tongue, or come to mind very easily. 

The hope for Microsoft is that the Surface can become a strong brand that rivals iPad, or MacBooks. Consumers can walk into a store and say, "I want a Surface." Microsoft wanted to have at least one premier Windows 8 device when it launched Windows 8 last year. Because Windows 8 was such a radical departure from what Microsoft had been doing, it had to have at least one device it could confidently say did exactly what it wanted. Its PC partners were dragging their feet in the tablet market, and Microsoft wasn't sure it could rely on them to produce something that competes with the iPad. In the smartphone market, these problems don't exist to the same degree. HTC and Nokia both make high-quality hardware. 

There's almost nothing Microsoft can do that will be better on the hardware side than either of them. As for branding, Nokia's Lumia brand isn't exactly killing it, but Nokia is a brand on its own, and Windows Phone is slowly developing into a brand. If a consumer walks into a Best Buy looking for a Windows Phone, it won't take much to get the best Windows Phone in his or her hands. It's important to note that Nokia and HTC are both sickly companies. If they were to face serious financial problems, then we would expect Microsoft to either step in with a big check to bail them out, or it would be forced to go on its own and make a phone. 

Until then, we think it stays out of the phone manufacturing business. Just because Microsoft is developing into a devices and services company, it doesn't mean it has to make all the devices. It just means it has to work well on devices. The reason Windows Phone hasn't caught on has less to do with hardware, and more to do with software and apps. A Microsoft-built smartphone wouldn't change that.