better picture 

 I don't see that I'd have a use personally, but I can well imagine those with a focus on health and fitness training may find them essential in their daily lives.  People who jog, and those who do gym work would find them quite useful to keep an eye on heart rate and things like that.  I won't need one, though.  I don't jog due to the pain of arthritic bones and joints, and I don't go to the gym for the same reason. 

Besides, couldn't afford it anyhow... cos I spend my spare cash on tech stuff that helps keep me fat.

Risk vs reward. They know they'll face fierce competition, but is it 0% chance that MS will be profitable themselves? Of course not! And there may be a significant chance that MS actually ends up ahead.

Just some very quick math with big numbers. Let's say they invest 100 million USD. They estimate that there is a 1% chance that they end up making back 100 million times 200 if it becomes the market leader in the niche (and 99% chance that they end up losing the entire investment). Very, very high risk - but probably still worth to pursue. If you make 1000 such investments in different areas, and your analysts are accurate, you'll end up making a lot of money. In real life, I doubt anyone would pursue a 1% chance, but you get the idea.

That said... watches? Dafucq? Smarth watches have never been a breakthrough product. This is a huge uphill battle. Not only do fewer and fewer buy watches anymore, but they'll also face significant competition in 10-15 years as mobile phones migrate from a chunk in your pocket to a wrap around your wrist.

Why bother to do anything at all then?  If you have a defeatist attitude you will never be successful in business, and other things for that matter.

Apple and Android are outselling Windows phones here in the US. They are not very popular around here, more or less a curse, considered "not cool" to own.

 Yes, they started out slow but as ID and STARKERS ( the keeper of the phone that does stupid shit ) pointed out, they ARE gaining in popularity. 

I said that, too.

In fact, in some markets the Windows phone is outselling its competitors, especially with low-end phones in African and some Asian markets, while some European markets are actually outselling Apple and Android with high-end phones... Spain and Portugal being two in particular.

Not only that, Surface tablets seem to be gaining ground as well... here in Oz especially.  I'm seeing more and more of them in use while I'm out these days, so they're not exactly dying in the arse, either.  True, the 1st version did not fare too well against Android and Ipad tablets, but the latest version has grown considerably in popularity, given the numbers I'm seeing.  Just the other day I saw 3 Surface tablets in use while I was waiting to see my doctor, and being there were just 9 people including myself in the waiting room, I'd say that's a decent percentage.

Thing is, there will always be knockers who enjoy putting things down, just for the sake of it, but so many of them are proven wrong all too often because they really don't have a clue what they're on about.

Hehe, yeah, "the keeper of the phone that does stupid shit".  I sure got a giggle out of that one. 

While it generally behaves and does what I want it to, there have been a couple of occasions it surprised be with unexpected actions.  Seriously, without a word of a lie, I listened as it dialed my sister one night without human intervention of any kind.  Yes, it was just sitting there on my desk and all of a sudden I heard the dialling tone... next thing I knew [it was on speaker] was my sister saying "hello. Hello".  Twilight Zone, anyone?

Another time the volume up and down button was increasing/decreasing the size of items appearing on the screen.  I know some phones have this feature, and that there are apps that can perform this function, but I do not recall ever downloading/installing one.  It hasn't happened since then, so yeah, it was somewhat peculiar.

There are apps that can perform this function, so I'm told, not that I've looked as yet. 

It's not something I've needed as yet... but as I get older, and too much of a good thing makes my eyesight fail, well things could change.

However, my sister who has the Samsung Note 2 told me it is an included app or a built-in feature.  I don't recall which now, but she told me her phone does it.  She also said that the up-down volume button can also be used to scroll pages, something I hope is coming with 8.1