[Windows Phone 7 General] N8ter:
You're wrong. Most people will recognze an icon before they recognize the name. That is where the app list fails most. It puts way too much emphasis on the name of the app, and not on the icon. A 2 year old can't (normally) read but if they see a McDonalds sign and a poster that Says "McDonald's" I guarantee you they will recognize the visual first. Most people are like this. They will recognize the icon faster. That is why branding is so important to a product, and companies will sue if someone else's icon/branding is too similar to theirs (recent Sony Erickson suit, for example).

Searching for names is not more efficient than looking through icons, unless your app list is needlessly cluttered with apps you barely ever use - however, just cause you don't spend tons of time in the app on any given day doesn't mean it's clutter...

Just cause you have 200 apps does not mean you do not use most of them. There are lots of smartphone apps that are nothing but app versions of a website or service (DropBox, Fox News, Epicurious, Facebook, Twitter, 4sq, YouTube, Engadget, XDA Forums App, Craigslist Apps, Fandango, eBay, RSS Readers, Yelp, etc.). Using the app is usually more efficient than using the website on a mobile device (that is why people were wanting i.e. an Engadget app so badly, or YouTube, etc.).

That's 15 Apps I named that can be installed (if available) on any user's phone. There are many more that someone can install (thousands, obviously) - nevermind all the stock and OEM installed apps.

I'm more than confident I can find all of these apps in a large list via icon way faster tha by name and certainly faster than launching the Bing App to search for functionality to get suggestions (with many apps you will not even get the suggestion for the app you have installed, but rather one available in the market...).

That doesn't mean the current method needs to be scrapped. They simply need to allow us an option to change it to a method we (personally) find more efficient. Suggesting someone use a different OS just cause they prefer the way apps are organized on another one is disingenuous, as well (just putting it out there since I know it's bound to be said).

The Start Screen suffers the same issue. Once you've gotten to about 6 or so pinned tiles, it becomes frustrating with all the scrolling.

I actively uninstall useful apps just to make the device itself more usable. I just can't deal with the large list. I know that Jump Lists are only a semi-decent solution because most phones haev something similar built into the Contacts app which is set up similar to the Windows Phone 7 App List. But these devices I refer to have Universal Search.

Also, I think you guys should stop recommending Mango workarounds for people who obviously do not have it (yet).

It IS being addressed in Mango. I just there there is so much more they can do to make it more pleasureable to use.

Also, the Start Screen easily becomes cluttered do to WP7's overreliance on Live Tile counters for Notifications. There is no Notification Cache for Toast Notifications (except for the Build in Social Network stuff in Mango) so if you miss a Notification from eBay or your Airline app, etc. there's no way to get it back or even see that you got one (if you missed it) short of a Live Tile Counter/Animation/etc. or opening the app to check.

They desperately need to add a notification cache and tray. That's the single most ridiculous user experience issue I currently have with WP7. I'm not a serial friender so the Social Notification pane doesn't amount to much for me (may for others, though).