After using a WP7 for the last three weeks, I believe there's an opportunity for Microsoft to get back into the game.
Yet that said it may be too late.
iOS is well developed and highly superior.
I have lots of experience with both (I have owned every iPhone, still have an iP4, had an HTC Surround, and currently use a Samsung Focus as my primary phone) and I have to disagree that iOS is "highly superior." It is well developed, and it definitely does more than WP7 right now, but, save for a few odd glitches I've noticed, WP7 is very polished and its UI is superior, making everything cleaner, easier, and more attractive. Each platform has its strengths, and I love them both, but I find WP7 more fun and better for day to day use.
This wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that the WP7 was using specific apps for the directions and movie times, while the iPhone was using Safari? Up until the search for movies, it was about even. Why didn't the iPhone user utilize an app also like Yelp or Poynt or any of the other 1000 apps to find movie times?
Lame test. I could do a similar test comparing the two, utilizing things optimized for iOS that would show the exact opposite result.
I don't care what app you use, WP7 will be faster because of how the UI is designed. No matter the app, you have to go to the homescreen (or open the app switcher), get to the page its on (or open the folder), then press the app, let it launch (if it isn't already in a saved state) and then either tap and type or tap and talk to search for what you want. From ANY screen in WP7, you can either:
a) tap the search key, type your search, and hit go, or
b) hold home, speak what you want to search for, and let it search. Combined with Bing and location data (all done automatically and in the background as you search), this makes finding things like movie times or maps very easy
Better designed is really a subjective question - of all the mobile OS's I think that iOS and WP7 have the most fluidity and thought out design (functionality compared to other OS's can be debated), just boils down to personal preference.
better designed in terms of appearance is subjective
better designed in terms of ease of use and functionality is not. WP7 wins the former, iOS the latter. However, Microsoft has already committed to bringing pretty much all the functionality iOS provides over WP7 with the Mango update and future updates, and while Apple may improve the ease of use of iOS, there is no guarantee. They need to stray away from the idea of individual apps doing specific tasks, and integrate certain things more smoothly throughout the whole OS as Microsoft has done (search being the primary example I'm thinking of)
Well that video was dumb. How is two people performing tasks on separate phones an indicator of anything? You could record two people on the same phone and it would still result in different times to perform the tasks. Not everyone is the same. Some people probably find WP7 better than iOS, but theres a reason they aren't on an iPhone forum.
While you are right about the comparison in the actual video, I own (and love) phones running both OSes, and I can guarantee you that, in terms of what was tested in this video, WP7 is far easier and faster. Let me outline the steps required to preform the tasks on each phone (lets assume each phone is not starting from the homescreen):
iOS:
1. Hit home button
2. Select camera app
3. take picture
4. hit home button
5. select facebook app
6. tap upload picture button
7. select picture (generally 2-3 taps)
8. choose upload picture
9. hit home button
10. hit maps
11. type in location to navigate to
12. hit home button
13. select movie app (or safari)
14. select movie
WP7:
1. press and hold camera button
2. press camera button to take picture
3. select upload to facebook
4. press search (or press and hold windows key)
5. type in map location (or speak map location)
6. press search (or press and hold windows key)
7. type in movie (or speak movie)
so this particular set of tasks is done in half the steps on WP7. Of course, this is a "challenge" that was chosen specifically to cater to the things that WP7 does undeniably better than iOS, and in and of itself does not dictate which is the better OS