Srdjan, MS owned the user experience when grandpa boxes ruled supreme, so even if apps all went browser MS still would be in the driver's seat. They leveraged this power effectively when they realized that the market was choosing the www via Netscape. Suddenly IE was included with Windows. Maybe they expected to exert the same power with mobile devices.

But the market has been changing. Apart from a shrinking pool of MS familiars, the market now is focused on customer benefit rather than brand. It has to be, not only because MS has made itself irrelevant in the mobile space but because it's been a very long time since a Windows OS delivered a real customer "wow" moment. Most people these days purchase a new Windows OS only because it's compulsory with their new PC or because vendors have Foxed drivers they need. You don't see the sense of excitement we saw with Win95 when people slept outside stores overnight to be first in line. Vendors who once seemed exciting and colorful now appear tired and old to people making mobile choices. Shame, but they did it to themselves.

I'd also observe that technology is supposed to reduce complexity and cost. Definitely that's the expectation on Android and iOS where apps are clicked and installed over the web for a few bucks. Seems to me that some grandpa box vendors went in the other direction, introducing Rube Goldberg development options that may be highly stimulating and lucrative for some, but deliver few if any benefits for customers over what came before. If MS really wanted to take a stake in the mobile market, they should throw the same $ they threw at WP to deliver a Lianja-like solution asap. Instead the field is left wide open for the small furry mammals.