Re: "... Microsoft always had a reasonably good back end, "
Kernel and driver stacks.
The most unreliable element on any WinMo device was HTC's (other manufacturers are/were available) pretty but awful skin. Sony's Xperia X1 wasn't too bad for reliability, but it was still a bit of a hog. Without it though, WinMo5 was no different to WinCE2003 and even it's predecessors. It was hateful, ugly, overly complicated but rock solid.
WinPhone7 sort of fixed it, and WinPhone8 did it properly, with 8.1 and the more recent GDR1 with Cortana makes it everything every Fandroid and iLoser wishes their device could be. Just with no applications. Which is it's only significant problem.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
