The thing is, it doesn't necessarily HAVE TO. I loved my Windows Phones, my wife and grandmother both have a Lumia 950 and they do everything they need to do, t

The thing is, it doesn't necessarily HAVE TO. I loved my Windows Phones, my wife and grandmother both have a Lumia 950 and they do everything they need to do, they don't require constant maintenance like every Android device I have supported and didn't cost a small fortune to get a device with an acceptable amount of storage (plus the camera is great, good combo for my wife). Ultimately though, the entire product is driven by Microsoft, and they maintain an Apple-like grip on their devices. With a "proper" linux-based phone anyone (assuming the hardware isn't crazy locked down) can contribute to the success, even if it remains a niche not everyone cares about snapchat or the hippest app of the month, if I can connect to my work VPN (this is actually where I ended up switching to an iPhone, there's no AnyConnect client for Windows Phone), use an email client with Exchange support, and have a modern web browser I'm mostly set for a daily driver - sure, it's nice to be able to use Netflix, Amazon Video, PlayStation Vue on my phone, but I've got my TV, my desktop or my tablet for all of that.