By pulling the SIM card out of my iPhone and slipping it inside a Samsung Focus, one of a few Windows Phone 7 models out currently.

The last Windows Mobile device I owned was BlackJack II, and I really liked it until the display seemed to get smaller and smaller, day by day – at least for my tired eyes.  This was the only selling point for the iPhone 3GS.  I had other folks on my team sporting them and really pushing the OS to do this that or the other with some newfound app from the fruit market.  I can say I didn’t pay for any applications, I just needed a phone that played music REALLY LOUD wherever it might be.  That’s why I (saved my money first and then) purchased an iPhone. 

Over the 2 1/2 years I owned it I probably synch with iTunes a total of 12-15 times, mainly to get apps back that had problems with iOS3 and iOS4 changes, the last time was for the iOS4.1 update.  Whenever it came out, that was the last time I updated my phone.

Just like it’s big-big brother the MBP, it is solid phone, and it never died.  I could always make a call and take care of business.  I have a few friends that are iOS developers, and they love it, no love loss at all between us, they enjoy the challenges the platform gives them and the envelopes they need to push – all developers like this. 

I , on the other hand, chose not to pursue the iOS platform as exciting and challenging as my peers made it sound.  I spent about six months being mentored by an awesome Silverlight developer and evangelist who demonstrated how Silverlight worked, and what each rev could do better then the previous.  And most importantly the tooling, it seemed remarkable to me and I could figure out how to make stuff from scratch and make it work for me.  I spent about eight months bending the curve back into my favor after he left for and reached that moment when you leverage the language to make it do what you want.  It was a good day, well great IMHO.

While I was working on Silverlight, Expression Blend, and Designer Windows Phone 7 (WP7) reared it’s head and landed on a device that I could apply some of my skills to.  The WP7 platform was a blended version of Silverlight 3 and 4 (some call it 3.5) but I instantly understood the layout and notification system, but didn’t get the entire platform b/c some of it was closed.  The developers’ guide states you have to do things a certain way or “no soup”, or to be clear your app wasn’t going anywhere near the app hub.  The iOS devs have the same opportunities, but really, who wants to publish an application that sucks or broken?!  Not I, ever. 

I’ve been blessed to be (physically and virtually) around a some really talented developers who enjoy this platform, and they like to share their experience and sometimes their code.  I think I enjoy the community aspect of the platform as much as the platform itself – it’s a nice pair.  There are .NET devs that work the same types of problems on the iOS platform as we would on the WP7 platform – tomato, tomata – potato, potata, I think we should all learn from each other and quit bitching about what platform is best.  It’s a phone, YMMV on that last point.

My only testimony, and probably the best is one adopter that was in the store waiting in line with me.  She was tapping and swiping to try to see what the Focus could do.  Then she found pictures, then the games, and so on, she was definitely engaged and she was about six years old.  She totally figured it out, and I’ve heard from others that have iOS devices their kids to the same.  I hope that all kids young and old, no matter what device they pick up to tap and swipe on, learn to love a platform that challenges them.

So, I waited and waited, and saved my money. Then yesterday I picked up my Samsung Focus.  It is a phone that I can see.  With windows down and sun roof open it is a music player I can hear.  It is a device that reciprocates torment when I deploy an app to it.   It is the awesome.