>>Microsoft is going to have a heck of a time cutting into the iPhone's market share. They tried the same thing with the Zune against the iPod,and look how well that's worked out ;-) My guess is a lot of the mostly younger market for consumer products like phones and music players simply don't want to buy from Microsoft.
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>I think Microsoft is learning a few plays from the Apple playbook. Windows 7 looks eerily like Mac OSX from many angles, and the clean break is what Apple has been doing many times in the past, and in the process been able to move its own platforms ahead (and leaving a lot of frustrated programmers bobbing for water.)
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>What I've seen of the upcoming Windows Mobile 7 is pretty cool, and actually a nice break from Apple's glassy UI. Current and previous Windows Mobile system have been absolutely awful, IMO, and without a clean break MS couldn't detach itself from this particluar drag anchor. I have a Winodws Mobile 6.0 device, and every time I use it I swear my next phone will NOT be a Windows -based one. So, I think MS would have done even better by breaking away from anything that reminds people of the constant pain that has been their Windows Mobile experience all these years.
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>As far as a market place for apps goes, though, I believe there is still plenty of room for new app markets for new platforms. I wouldn't count MS out quite yet, since the mobile marketplace is an increasingly important one. Besides, if you try to write an iPhone app AND make some money with it these days, good luck to you and the over 100,000 other developers in that particular digital Bazaar. It would be nice to have a less crowded place to at least get your start in this field.

Sure, there are a lot of developers, but there are also a lot of potential customers. Some folks really are getting rich writing for that market.