How good is Windows Phone 7? Depends what country you're in.

Last week V3.co.ukpublished a storey based on a report from analyst firm Ovum which says that Windows 7 Phone (WP7) would be the fastest growing platform in 2011.Given the strong competition in the smartphone market from Android, Apple and BlackBerry this seemed like a bold claim to us, and sure enough the story caused intense debate among V3.co.uk readers.
Hoopla about Skype going mobile, can be centred around the iPhone, but there are other smart-phone users out there.
As such, we track down who made the claim analyst, Tony Cripps, to ask him if he stood by his opinion.
For example, there are people who prefer the lately launched Windows Phone 7 over to the iPhone or Android phones.
Based solely on percentages, it is most inconceivable that WP7 will not be the fastest growing platform on the market in 2011 - in fact if not it will have been a huge flop, and it will tell us something about the market we do not yet know, he said .
But one of the problems with Windows phone are the tools Microsoft makes available for third party developers.
We have no precise predictions we work with how the phone will act in the market, which we will release in a few weeks, but it seems likely that the trademark Microsoft brings to market will make the platform popular.
The question has certainly been one of the main reasons that Skype has developed a mobile app for the Windows platform phone.
Cripps explained that he felt the platform could end up performing very well due to a number of key differences.
With no future app development in the area, took some clever Windows phone users on how to connect their phones with Skype.
The WP7 platform brings something different to the market.
The developers have come up with a VoIP app that, among other things, pulling your Skype contacts to your phone.
It is very easy to use and has a very nice overall user experience that is very important, as it undoubtedly has the potential to achieve market position in 2011, he said.
But like many hacks there is a problem.
While it seems unlikely that the platform would encourage as many developers as other operating systems such as Apple and Android, the quality of apps designed to be equally important.
The app does not allow you to make voice or video calls.
Readers of the original story had expressed mixed opinions about the claims, with some rubbishing the idea and the platform while others defended it.
When you factor in the quality of the iPhone hardware, innovative design and the large number of useful apps, the clear winner is the iPhone, says reader Marco Moser.
If it comes from nothing - so yes - the Microsoft platform can have the almost growth - but it is so far behind it's not even funny.
But reading Julian disagreed and the reasons why he believes Microsoft may have a winner on its hands.
When you consider Microsoft is a leader in the Cloud, UC, productivity apps, [...] and most importantly, the largest IT developer / partner network on the planet - with WP7 and next versions, the last connection is needed to exploit the combined power stack, he said.
When used and scaled by their developers and partners to network I think we will see them take the smart phones to a whole different level.
No doubt Microsoft will just be glad to see that its platform is causing a stir in the market for smart phones, rather than being simply ignored by all concerned.