I think they've always planned for Windows Phone to be merged into mainline Windows eventually, once the hardware is ready (though expecting that to be the W8 t

I think they've always planned for Windows Phone to be merged into mainline Windows eventually, once the hardware is ready (though expecting that to be the W8 timeframe is a bit optimistic on Intel's part). That's why they've been careful not to expose the underlying CE kernel to third-party native code (only through a .NET VM) - so they can change the kernel without breaking things. Not sure how that makes it "not a long-term platform", though - that's like saying consumer Windows in the 90s wasn't a long-term platform because they eventually swapped out the 9x kernel for NT. The switchover, when it eventually comes, should be mostly transparent to users and developers.