Sometimes I'm slow on the uptake, John, so please enlighten me.
I recently finished an expert C# system that walks designers of manufactured items thru the design process. There are about 80 variables in the process that relate to one another as the process proceeds. The users (engineers) all have 20" or larger monitors, but screen real estate was a constant issue throughout the project, so we used tab pages, dropdowns, and other devices to conserve square inches.
These engineers are particularly finicky and wanted to see almost all the variables at once and it took many iterations to get the screens to a point that satisfied them.

To make it even more complicated, the forms are MDI and sometimes the users are looking at two or three related design projects at once on multiple monitors.

How would a phone or tablet do that app?




>>Anything with those 3 blue letters on it was much easier to sell to business clients, so we stayed with IBM wherever possible.

True, but in 2011 many decision-makers already have an iPhone or Android device in their pocket... and many of them already have won a joust with IT to get their device integrated into company systems. They're already sold on the device in their pocket and already have gone to bat for it. The "installed base" is less favorable to MS every day that goes by.

>>My life and the lives of my clients would be a lot simpler if we could stay in a familiar tech world as things evolve, so our bias will naturally be toward MS and the usurpers will have a steeper hill to climb.

That's certainly true for traditional systems in which there will be a significant market for years to come, just as was for VFP for over a decade after Sigler made it clear that MS intended to neglect it.