Yea but the fact is they dont have to use it they can easily choose something else over it.

Just gonna comment about a couple of things in the article:

Microsoft, despite inventing the smart phone business years ago, has never had any vision beyond putting some form of Windows on a phone platform with no regard to the form factor or user needs. To me this attitude continues with Phone 7 for no other reason than the moniker Phone 7.

Once one takes a look at the OS, one would immediately see that this is definitely not Windows on a smart phone.  And it is definitely designed for mobile needs.

I cannot see Microsoft pulling this off even if Phone 7 is a remarkable product, which I doubt. The company shows no indication as to what the "app" model is all about or it would have been buying and seeding app developers the way Google Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!goog/quotes/nls/goog (GOOG 458.83, 7.85, 1.74%) did early on.

The app model for WP7 is to have a marketplace that developers can sell their applications.  It will not be quite as stringent as Apple's approval process, but there will be more control than Google's.  They are providing very good development tools, very good design guides, and (as is quite well known)they are also providing monetary incentives to develop for their platform.  Their marketplace also has supports applications to have trials, so no "Lite" bullshit is needed here.  The tools have been downloaded over 300,000 times, and MS development tools are exceptional.  Not sure what Mr. Dvorak is talking about here.

Information on MS using cash as an incentive to develop apps:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-14/microsoft-pays-mobile-app-developers-to-catch-apple.html

For WP7 application certification information:

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9730558

Resource for WP7 development(includes code samples, keynote and development sessions, tutorials, guides, documentation, etc):

http://developer.windowsphone.com/windows-phone-7/

About now in any column I should relent and talk about the possibility that Microsoft can pull this off. But the more I think of it the more I realize that Apple has changed so many elements of the game so uniquely that Microsoft cannot possibly spot the subtleties. There are too many.

I am curious as to what elements Apple has changed.  He neglects to mention any of them.

Basically, an article full of generalizations and what appears to be little actual information about WP7 other than an advertising budget and an assumption that the marketplace will be devoid of anything useful, regardless of the fact that the most used/popular apps on competing platforms will definitely be getting ports. 

This is almost as bad as that InfoWorld article that WP7 haters latched onto that was full of incredibly misinformed information and based completely off a single demonstration with no hands on time with the device. 

Thats the same as any other phone platform, you haven't made any real point.

I was sleepy and didnt feel like explaining myself, but it looks like someone did my job for me.

Thank you JaggedSac, your name might be Jagged but your post was clean and to the point.

Not sure about low hopes but considering how rapdily Android is growing and how popular that and ios are and not to mention good competition from blackberry and such = tough battle..but only time will tell

Well my point here really was nobody HAS to use something there is so many options out there. On its own it might work great and all however, how does it stack up against the competition is really the question. And i think throwing in what if kind of situations here are pointless and don't really add anything.

 With that being said i dont really care a whole lot about WM7 or the competition. I dont have a whole lot of knowledge on WM7 (which is why im here) but with the amount of research and time they have put in i am sure they have done at least a satisfactory job and i wish them the best of luck.

Well that's the thing. Not only does it look pretty interesting, but you might even say it looks awesome and better than the iPhone and yet it will fail because it's nearly impossible to break into the smart phone market now.

Everywhere I look I see a person with an iPhone.

I hear about people here checking out the Ericsson Xperia X10 (Android) and saying it looks real nice but still they decide to buy an iPhone even though it costs 300 Euros more.

I think W7 phone will be rather niche product.

It will look very atractive to gamers but for general public it probably won't be as good as android or iphone who enjoy advantage of tons of aps available for them (and android steals all the hardcore pc enthusiasts with openess)

People said that about Android...

Personally I don't expect it to set the world alight but Microsoft have some innate advantages which will allow them to carve up a decent segment of the market to build off. They don't have to beat Android/iPhone with this release, they just need to get the ball rolling in their direction.

I know they don't have to beat Android/iPhone. That's not what I am talking about.

I am talking about a Zune level of fiasco. Phone 7 will initially take 2-3% of the smartphone market and then vanish within a year or two.