>>Don't sell my embolded part short: Mono is MS best current hope.

Fair enough, but my understanding is that it's not going to include the EF unless hackers decide to do it themselves. IOW not much of a unified platform. And it's too expensive for the tinkerers who come up with much of the cool stuff on Android.

>>Java/Oracle does not not have a chance after the trial blunder

Why not? I'm expecting that Google will press right along with an increasingly forked version of Java. Gava, anybody? ;-)

>>and MS is poised rather well and gets also a nice return on Android via direct contract.

Yep, about $500M from patent/other licensing deals last year. However, that will not satisfy shareholders: as of January, almost ALL of MS's operating income is from Windows/Windows Live, Server & Tools and Business divisions. Their primary goal today has to be to protect those revenue streams. Meanwhile the mobile division is costing up to $1B/year depending who calculates it. That can't continue with nothing much to show for it.

>>The toolset leaves wx (and therby wxPython and Dabo) totally in the dust, and QT had licesning issues,
although they were poised to own mobile as well (via Symbian and the precursors to all those other mobile linux')
and is not that relevant anymore.

I'm expecting a modern version of Dr Dave to appear before long with something really hot that enables users, ushers in another generation of enthused developers and creates another wave of IT fun... ;-)