as an example of why, as a phone OS vendor, it is absolutely necessary to control the hardware AND your vendors to the maximum extent possible if you want to achieve good user experience.

If you ask 100 Apple users why they love their device, you get the same response over and over. "It just works." Android crashes are a direct result of Google not controlling the hardware, and allowing multiple vendors to mess with their software between them and your user experience. Motorola tacks on Blur, altering the user experience (in a way I personally find OK) but they aren't very good at it, so they add insecurities and instability. Then Verizon tacks on more crap, shoving their bloat down your throat until people are willing to spend huge amounts of time digging into the deep depths of how their phones work, so they can root it... to what? Back to Google's vanilla, un-modified OS, before the vendors messed it up.

Microsoft has the same issues and worse. While I enjoy the free open market and wide variety of choice, I have to admit that Microsoft faces much larger challenges writing a system that can behave in a stable manner when it runs such a large quantity of low-level code (drivers etc.) that they have very little control over.

Now think of the challenge faced by average Joe User, trying to buy a PC. If he goes shopping _anywhere_ he will be presented with 30 dramatically underpowered "$500 special" machines that have been loaded with bloat and adware to pad the vendor's pockets, made out of the cheapest parts so they're expected to fail as soon as possible and bring in more business. He'll also be presented with 30 ridiculously overpowered beasts, also loaded up with bloat to the point they might actually need their extra juice just to run a web browser. Finally he'll see maybe 10 machines in the "correct" range of what he needs, but those also have been screwed with well beyond the point of sacrificing functionality and stability. The vendors' utilities are usually terrible, either conflicting with built-in Windows tools, slowing down the machine, or sometimes just plain not working. To get a functional Windows system, Joe User has to reformat from scratch, probably needing to buy a new Windows disk in the process because the vendor won't give him a vanilla OEM install just a "system restore" with the bloat already in it.

This is why the people who get the best Windows experience are always techs. Everyone else loses. It's the vendors' fault, not Microsoft's, and the only thing Microsoft can do about it is compete with a better product.

(Now, someone mentioned some sort of settlement involving not being a PC hardware manufacturer as a reult of a previous antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, one I personally think ought to also apply to Apple because they are far worse about locking out the competition, so this all may be moot.)