My take on this is because Microsoft cannot match google's monetize scheme, and afaik this is the reason wphone can't be cheaper than android. Furthermore there

My take on this is because Microsoft cannot match google's monetize scheme, and afaik this is the reason wphone can't be cheaper than android. Furthermore there already iphone on premium level that replace blackberry at that time. They need to target for specific market segment (lets say phones for corporate and office, or phone for developer) that has minimum apps (whatsapp, etc) and easy to port from other platform (ex: from xamarin / android app). Of course they need to rethink the monetization scheme to match android's price.