There is extremely strong competition. Apple is selling as many iPhones as can be produced. The whole market is growing, but Android is capturing most of that growth, mainly due to having low- and high-end phones, and being available on every carrier from most manufacturers. The premium iPhone will never get the same volume as the collection of Android phones costing $0-$49 (and with the free phone deals as I got). RIM is going to have problems and follow Microsoft if they can’t pull something off soon. Inertia will only carry RIM so far.
Symbian is dead. Like RIM, current sales are an inertia thing.
With this crowded market, and with NOTHING special to bring to the game relative to the other players (in fact, it’s behind), Microsoft is going to have to rely on corporate muscle and patent threats to push Windows Phone 7. That’s why the timing of the patent lawsuit against the only major Android vendor that isn’t a WP7 release partner (Motorola) just before the WP7 release — everybody get in line or else.
What I wonder from you specifically, is with the advent of WP7 will the lack of removable SD cards or multitasking suddenly not be a problem in your opinion?
That right there shows your ignorance, or complete lack of consideration of anything outside the US. Nokia's selling around 260,000 smartphones a DAY - they do in a week what would be a great month for Apple. And many of what Nokia considers "feature phones" are actually as full-featured as the iPhone, meaning actual iPhone-like Nokia devices are even further ahead in daily sales.
Nokia's FAR from dead.
Windows phone 7 will be a better multi-tasker and more powerful than iOs or android, but more expensive and more battery unfriendly. RIM will retain market share for security functionality.
That said, I’m on my Dell Streak, and I love it. 5” android FTW.