>Interesting article. This is the primary reason the Microsoft Kin phone failed - lack of retail stores promoting sales to consumers.
>
>Are the Carriers Strangling Windows Phone 7 at Retail?
>http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2386647,00.asp
>
>Note this quote by a Verizon employee:
>
>"Honestly, only 1 out of 500 customers comes in here asking for a Windows phone," he said. "Verizon won't roll them out to kiosks until it performs better on the market."


Yeah, I wouldn't trust a sales person at a Verizon store on the matter any more than the guy who makes the fries at McDonald's to know how to raise cows.

You've got the platform makers (MS, Google, Apple), you've got the hardware makers (HTC, Samsung, LG, ect.) and the carriers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile).

If Microsoft has a problem getting their platform down the chain, I'd be willing to be it's more of an issue somewhere earlier up the line than the sales people at the carrier's retail stores.

That said, Microsoft has been stringing the hardware manufactures and carrier's along with half-baked products for at least 10 years.

The fact that Apple and Google come out and start fresh relationships with those folks and become wild successes, why would any one look back to Microsoft, the guy they dated in Jr High and turned out to be a total loser?