Windows Phone: hold out hope or abandon ship?

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I’ve been holding out for a good Windows Phone. Windows Phone 8, so far, isn’t drastically different from 7.8, from what I’ve seen. Sprint’s lack of Windows Phone 8, or what people are calling poor or sloppy CDMA support from Microsoft, is also killing me slowly. I’m long overdue for an upgrade and have been tempted by the beautiful design of the HTC One, or the refinement of the Samsung Galaxy S4. But I continue to wait. I want to invest myself in a single ecosystem, to be embedded in a platform. I’m not interested in a Mac, and a Chromebook is laughable.

Recent experiences with Windows Phone have put a sour taste in my mouth, and after watching the Google I/O 2013 Keynote, I’m reminded how important it is to constantly be improving your platform. I hear rumors of “Windows Phone Blue” but just a name. More about iOS7 changes being drastic. But Windows Phone? The changes seem like they never come, and even when they do, the poor end users either wait forever or are forced to hack the update onto their phone.

I feel like I’m grasping at straws, anymore. Microsoft talks about how they have 80% of the top 25 apps, and thousands more. But the Windows Phone Marketplace is tiny. And finally getting the apps is different from having had those apps. Seeing the radical improvements in Google Now, even since its launch, just make me wonder what it is that my phone is doing in my pocket all day? It could be doing much more.

I just wonder if I’m missing out on substance, or buying in to hype? I think I’ll see what iOS7 offers up, and wait for some more news on Windows Phone Blue before I commit to this generation of devices… which still seems like a life-time away in the technology-timeline, but it will just have to wait.