Today's a big day for Microsoft; Steve Ballmer showed off a couple of handsets sporting their latest Windows Phone 7 (WP7) mobile operating system; one from HTC, LG and Samsung. We ran a poll last week to gauge the excitement around this. After clocking thousands of votes, as of now there's no doubt over who still holds the cue ball in this game.

A whooping 37 percent of people are still cheering for Google's Android OS. There are many phones running this free, open-source operating system across various price brackets - from wallet-friendly to the iPhone-competing premium range. Plus, it's got the second most populated app store after Apple's. Then there are features that WP7 doesn't yet have (multi-tasking, bluetooth file transfer, video calling, copy-paste, flash support etc.)

 

But Microsoft has generated enough steam to land at the number 2 spot, till the time of writing totaling to 22 percent. This is good news for the Redmond-based giant, as they'd been on the receiving end for their earlier Windows Mobile OS. Coming in close at third place is Nokia at 19 percent. Despite the lukewarm response they got for Symbian^3 and a no-show by the name of Meego, a fair amount of people have good faith in the Finnish phone maker. Maybe their recent releases had something to do with this.


The fourth position was taken by the company that changed the smartphone game for everybody - Apple. While the iPhone is still liked by many, maybe their premium positioning doesn't gel well with a majority of the audience who don't have (or don't want to spend) Rs. 30,000 (USD 675) on a phone. The last and second last spots are shared by Samsung's Bada OS and Blackberry; both at 6 percent. For Samsung, that's good news seeing that people are actually supporting this fairly nascent OS. But for BlackBerry, well, God alone can save them.


So, do you think the buzz around Windows Phone 7 is worth it? Or will its shortcomings keep it from gaining the Numero Uno spot that Microsoft dominates in the PC Operating System market?