[Windows Phone 7 General] tomhierl:
That's the problem with your whole argument. Neither MSFT nor Apple reject apps because of data-mining.

That's a stupid user. Especially if, say, a fart app asks for web access. That should make anyone suspicious.

In fact, I can.

This is because Android's method is the ONLY method that's there on any OS.

Since no other OS than Android has any kind of security mechanism against data mining, Android is in fact the most secure in this regard.

First of all, Android apps are sandboxed as well, running in the Dalvik VM.

But, and this is the important difference, Android apps can integrate. They can share files with other apps, they can seamlessly integrate into the system, they can be set as default etc.

While iOS does not allow any integration whatsoever, WP7 at least allows some. But it's absolutely nothing compared to Android.

So, integration is reason #1.

Next, the user interface.

Let's start with the home screen. What Microsoft has done here is make icons bigger and widgets less useful (and renaming them to "live tiles").

It's nice to have integration on the home screen, but once again, Android does this in a much more useful way, because icons aren't huge and widgets can take different sizes.

Moreover, widgets don't require a push service, which by the way represents an additional security threat.

You'll find yourself scrolling up and down all the time, because the tiles waste so much space, and the amount of information you can have on your home screen is very limited.

So much for the home screen. Another issue is application switching. WP7 lets you go back (closing the app you're leaving), but never go forward. If you want to go to an application you've been using before, you can either press the back button (several times until you reach the app you want) or go back to the home screen, swipe left, scroll down... until you find the app.

And if you want to go forward, your only choice is to go back to the home screen etc. etc.

The issue with wasted space continues throughout the whole UI, with lists not filling the screen because of the huge text at the top etc.

The animations take way too long and are way too distracting - not helpful at all.

(maybe the apps just load that slow, who knows...)

That's not a well thought through UI at all!

So that's reason #2

(and a lot more could be said about flaws in the UI)

Next, file management.

OK, by now everyone knows that files can only go through Zune and there's no USB storage mode. Naturally that means you are limited to very few file types that you can easily load onto the phone (music, video, Office files, pictures).

Any other file can only be loaded onto the phone via the web or emailing it to oneself - very bad solution.

Moreover, files loaded from the web can either not be saved at all or not viewed in any application other than the one it's been downloaded with.

Very, very bad solution!

So much for reason #3

Other reasons include multitasking, the browser engine etc., but everyone knows about that by now.

So yeah, WP7 is indeed a disaster. It's highly un-userfriendly, not thought through at all and severely lacking.

As for the so-called "bloat", I can't find any issue here. You simply buy the phone you like. Thanks to Android being an open platform, you get the choice.

Sure, unlike with WP7, Android OEMs can create "bad" phones, because there are no restrictions. However, you don't have to buy them.

It's that simple.

(oh and I didn't say you can "unbloat" Android - that was someone else - I personally don't see any necessity to do so as I simply buy the phone I like - choice is great)