I've worked at microsoft as well, and I concur. The corporate culture seems designed to produce bad UX, even though all the MSFT employees I knew were earnest

I've worked at microsoft as well, and I concur. The corporate culture seems designed to produce bad UX, even though all the MSFT employees I knew were earnest and well meaning. Interestingly, the OP post suffers from the problem he accuses the iPhone of. He says "you're not your customer, don't design the product for you" and then laments the iPhone because it doesn't fit what he thinks a phone should be.