This is partially right -- before "modern" Windows Phone spun off of 8.1 and 10 there was a Windows 7-esque mobile OS, and one that tracked XP. They still ran o

This is partially right -- before "modern" Windows Phone spun off of 8.1 and 10 there was a Windows 7-esque mobile OS, and one that tracked XP. They still ran on different processors, but with an API very similar to the desktop OS. But, comparing them to Android they did not have any major benefits or detriments. What I think made them fail was their relative obscurity. For non-Intel platforms, Microsoft is very much in favor of boot locking and a lack of consumer control, perhaps at the behest of hardware creators who insist on NDAs. So these things were never really publicized.