WINDOWS PHONE 8.1 is a very good mobile operating system.

Now what?

Good or not good, most people have already chosen something else — either an iPhone or some variety of Android smartphone. Neither platform is perfect, but they are familiar. How do you persuade people to get out of the comfortable bed they’ve already made and move to another one?

I spent the last week or so with the recently released Windows Phone 8.1, and let me put it this way: I wouldn’t give up my iPhone for Windows Phone, but I might give up my Android.

Windows Phone is now — to use what may sound like faint praise — good enough. It’s good enough to replace Android, especially since the operating system is a lot more upfront about how it’s going to use my information, where and when it’s gathering it, and why.

It’s good enough to tempt people who are tired of the same old thing (an oddly rebellious position for Microsoft), and also those who have Windows PCs, Office at work, Xboxes at home and little investment in iTunes or Google Play apps and music. That is to say, it’s good enough for quite a lot of people.