Completely agree that nerd appeal matters not one bit to end-users. But while yes, they pay attention to the polish, what they are really after is being cool. A

Completely agree that nerd appeal matters not one bit to end-users. But while yes, they pay attention to the polish, what they are really after is being cool. And no cool person I know is going to get caught carrying Microsoft around while there are iPhones in the world. The Droid is show-off-worthy and cool too. Microsoft has a steep climb out of its uncool-ness, and I for one, would not bank on it. But I've been wrong before. Found it interesting how Android is dissed as something that appeals only to nerds, which in my mind I kept equating with "developers" and the reasoning this is bad, while Microsoft's strategy is good is that they focus on developers, developers, developers. I like how Max likes being the contrarian, much ala Giles Bowkett, and get tons of traffic and us commenting on his articles. He's output a good number just this year and about all of these have made it into HN's home page. He knows how to get nerds talking, that's for sure.