Talking about 'winning' or 'losing' is STILL foolish, even from the broader viewpoint.
No one product will win. Some products will fail. This is as true for smartphones as it is for games consoles, cars, and soft drinks.
People do this all the time, and it's so needlessly divisive and tribalist. When the current generation of games consoles came out (as with every generation before) there was raging debates over which one would 'win' - and look, they're all selling, all have games, and all are popular. Sometimes an individual product or company will fail (Sega, in the games console market), but you very rarely really see a single dominant 'winner'.
Windows was a clear dominant 'winner' for a long time. Still is, even though it's becoming less relevant.
I agree that identifying with a side or a company is usually counter-productive, but having a strong preference for a specific technology to 'win' for practical or ideological reasons seems fair.
Market share determines what platforms people choose to develop for. "Winning" and "losing" is why I don't recommend the Palm Pre to anyone. It matters, and all other things being equal, I want to own a phone that runs the "winning" platform.
I propose that you don't get 'winning' platforms, just 'losing' ones. (Windows aside, that is - I think that's an anomaly that hasn't been and won't be repeated.)
Arguing for any particular platform 'to lose', if it's not clearly already lost, is just baiting. Arguing for a platform 'to win', when it's already shown that it's not lost, is about the same.
Advising avoiding a platform that's lost is a different matter - I wouldn't recommend the Palm Pre, the Sega Dreamcast, or the Atari ST.
No one product will win. Some products will fail. This is as true for smartphones as it is for games consoles, cars, and soft drinks.
People do this all the time, and it's so needlessly divisive and tribalist. When the current generation of games consoles came out (as with every generation before) there was raging debates over which one would 'win' - and look, they're all selling, all have games, and all are popular. Sometimes an individual product or company will fail (Sega, in the games console market), but you very rarely really see a single dominant 'winner'.