Windows Phone is worthy alternative

There are many smartphone users who are not giving Microsoft's Windows Phone the look it deserves.

Together, Android and iOS hog more than 80 percent of the U.S. market share. Android's large chunk of the market is split among a horde of devices from several makers, while Apple has relatively few.

Then there is Microsoft.

If anyone can wedge into the current smartphone landscape it would be team Redmond. Microsoft recently pushed out its Mango update, otherwise known as Windows Phone 7.5, bringing a substantial refresh to the platform.

But with just 2 percent of the U.S. market, does a new Windows Phone device make sense?

Let go of your expectations, because the innovation in Windows Phone 7.5 seems to surprise a lot people -- some who are harsh Microsoft critics. It is refreshingly organic compared with the rigid, icon-based and app-centric interfaces of Android and iOS.

Rather than building upon pages packed with icons or folders of apps, Mango is designed around a user's interests, which are divided into hubs: People, Pictures, Music and Video, Office and others. These hubs connect and centralize aspects of our digital lives in a way that Android and iOS have largely ignored -- even with Siri.

Another cool feature in the People hub is a consolidated feed of notifications from your social networks.

Then there is the Office hub, armed with OneNote for note-taking and the tools to create and edit Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. Office 365 provides cloud access to your documents, e-mail, calendar and contacts. There are ways to accomplish similar productivity on competing platforms, but you'll be hard-pressed to match Microsoft. This is its arena.

If you know and use SkyDrive, you'll appreciate Mango's integration. If you don't know SkyDrive, you should. It's 25 gigabytes of free online storage for your documents, photos, videos and other files.

Microsoft recently released an Xbox Companion app for access to Gamerscore, sending messages, setting a beacon and viewing the Xbox videos, music, games and apps. Your Windows Phone can also work as a media remote with your Xbox.

The Quick Launch screen is Mango's home or start screen, and hosts an array of user selected tiles. Tiles range from live-updating widgets to shortcuts for hubs, apps and contacts. They can be added, removed and rearranged.

Thanks to a search engine overhaul, Bing gains cool new tricks. Its Local Scout feature uses GPS to provide you with hyper-local search results for restaurants, shopping, events and other highlights.

Even cooler is the built-in music search that works like Shazam or SoundHound, which are popular with iOS and Android users. Press Bing's music search button, let it listen to the music, and it identifies the song faster than those dedicated apps.

Bing's visual search works similarly to Google Goggles. It can analyze QR codes, barcodes, Microsoft Tags book covers, CDs, DVDs and can translate text to and from a variety of languages.

The Marketplace for Windows Phone has a fraction of the offerings available in its competitors' app stores. But at over 40,000 apps, most of what you could want is there. It has "Angry Birds," Netflix and various streaming music apps.

For an iTunes and Apple user, iOS is hard not to put on the "consider" list. Android's Google services and Flash Player support are unmatched.