I basically agree. Look at the deal from MSFT's perspective: 1. They are desperate to get (back) into the mobile OS market. For a company that is built on OS

I basically agree. Look at the deal from MSFT's perspective: 1. They are desperate to get (back) into the mobile OS market. For a company that is built on OS dominance this is an existential crisis... much more than Google Search ever could be. 2. Everything they have tried so far has failed, badly. How many W7 phones have you seen in the wild? 3. Hooking up with partner like Nokia (remember: still the largest phone manufacturer, albeit mostly not smartphones) is probably the only credible move MSFT can make that may reverse this. This implies that the deal probably is costing MSFT dearly. They needed Nokia, and Nokia knew it. Remember: Microsoft still has more money than god. We've seen with Xbox that they're willing to use that cash to muscle into markets with entrenched players. If they want it bad enough they can be a force... imagine if they subsidize the hardware enough to make the phones almost free, buy several of the top indie iOS developers, and buy a pact with companies like EA to make new titles W7 exclusive at launch. There's no reason to think they'll WIN.. after all, Apple and Google are hardly paupers. I'm just saying that it could get real interesting. Or maybe it won't. MSFT might continue to make no headway in the market and Nokia will just end up going down the tubes.