An important factor he's missing is Microsoft's GUI for installing apps- instead of targeting developers exclusively, like GAE, from what I've heard you can jus

An important factor he's missing is Microsoft's GUI for installing apps- instead of targeting developers exclusively, like GAE, from what I've heard you can just go click 'install wordpress' on Azure and get your own little blog set up. The combination of a start easy enough for the layman combined with a reasonable upgrade path could really be an important thing for them.