The mobile team was right... in 2005. In 2005 even subsidized smartphones were at $399 and capacitive displays were still a tad too expensive. Even in 2007 wh

The mobile team was right... in 2005. In 2005 even subsidized smartphones were at $399 and capacitive displays were still a tad too expensive. Even in 2007 when Apple shipped the iPhone, MS probably couldn't do the same thing with the exact same device. Apple was buoyed by their consumer hardcore base, which MS doesn't really have. And given that MS already had another mobile OS that seemed more feature-rich, I think the msPhone would have had trouble in the marketplace. The thing that Jobs has seemed to have nailed is timing. Maybe his experience with Newton left a great impression on him, but he seems much more cautious in bringing things to market (I know that it almost seems like the opposite). He put the iPad on hold and moved it to a phone form factor. That was genius. An iPad in 2007 flops. In iPad, after 3 years of the iPhone, redefines the market (in part because the phone requires you to make a consumption device -- which then feeds into your tablet strategy). I don't think this is so much a question of what did MS miss, but rather what did Apple get right. Because frankly, no one else other than Apple got it right either.