Steve Wozniak loves his Windows Phone.
No, that's not a typo. And no, Microsoft isn't driving a huge sackload of cash over to my apartment (or Wozniak's home) to make such a statement. That's the general gist of an impromptu conversation between A New Domain's Dan Patterson, Gina Smith, Todd Moore and the Apple co-founder, Silicon Valley geek legend, and tech enthusiast — in a Mountain View, California's Togo's sandwich shop, of all places.
As numerous Woz-watchers are undoubtedly aware, Wozniak tends to carry around a plethora of gadgets and devices when he's on the move. At the time of his chat with the crew from A New Domain, the Woz was packing no fewer than four smartphones (of the 10 he says he owns): Two Apple iPhones (both 4S), a Motorola Droid Razr, and a Nokia Lumia 900.
And which does he like the most?
"Just for looks and beauty, I definitely favor the Windows 7 phone over Android," Wozniak said.
"I'm kind of shocked on every screen — much more beautiful than the same apps on Android and iPhone. So I think that what Microsoft or Nokia did is that they went to some of the key app makers and got them to deliberately make specialized beautiful ones or they put their own themes on…" Wozniak added.
It's a hard, but fair truth: According to an April report by the New York Times, Microsoft has been underwriting developers' costs for building Windows Phone apps. These apps would have otherwise cost anywhere from $60,000 to $600,000 to build — and the help has certainly incentivized companies to push to the Windows Phone ecosystem faster.
Wozniak went on to clarify, via a comment posted to A New Domain's website, that his praise of his Lumia 900 wasn't meant to suggest that it was now the number-one phone in his geeky heart. That honor still goes to the iPhone — go figure.
"I did give my opinion that the Windows 7P phone had superior visual appearance and operation cues that were also more attractive. In my opinion, it sets the mark for user interface. I would recommend it over my Android phones given that it doesn't yet have the breadth of apps," Wozniak wrote.
While his comment about his Windows Phone's "more beautiful" apps and the lengths Microsoft allegedly went to get them could be seen as a bit of a backhanded compliment, Wozniak saved his biggest praise of Microsoft for the end.
"I also surmised that Steve Jobs might have been reincarnated at MS due to a lot of what I see and feel with this phone making me think of a lot of great Apple things," Wozniak wrote.
For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).
