In his UXVenture blog, a personal hero of mine, Travis Lowdermilk, discusses The Perception Game:

I’ve seen this time and again. Especially in the tech industry. There are great products, that have been well researched, carefully crafted, and still flop under the weight of user perception…

I agree that perception plays a huge factor in getting attention, but perception can only go so far… Travis then goes on to give Apple a whole lot of credit:

…But Windows Phone is not flying off the shelves. People aren’t waiting in long lines or getting into fist fights over the last box in stores. Why is that?
I think, in large part, it’s because Apple has done an amazing job of convincing people that Microsoft products are “uncool” or “dated”.

I think they’ve done an even more amazing job of convincing people that Apple products are “cool” and “magical”. And they’re not doing this by ads alone, but by also delivering on their promises.

Microsoft is losing the perception game because of their years of over-promising and under-delivering. Like other 20-somethings, Microsoft dominated my life growing up. My formative years are filled with memories of their flagship product, Windows, plaguing me with BSODs, viruses, and struggle.

I haven’t tried Windows Phone 7 Mango yet, but I have heard good things and I definitely think WP7 deserves a bigger share of pie than Android. But first Microsoft has to dig out of the hole it has created for itself.