Microsoft is taking a unique approach to marketshare .... pumping BILLIONS into Nokia (Sr. Managment at Nokia are now ex-MSFT execs ... so no chance of bias in Nokia’s selection of Win7).
If you can’t win marketshare - perhaps you can buy it.
Unfortunately, the marketplace response to the Win7 Mobile OS has been tepid, to say the least. I do not expect this to be ‘win’ for MSFT; and a loss for Nokia - and thousands of thier soon-to-be-ex-employees.
I think Nokia had better hire some brilliant UI designers and make their investment more pleasing to the eye than blue boxes.
Why not? It worked for the XBox. Microsoft worked up a multi-billion dollar loss leader for years and bought up some of the best game studios so they'd write games for the XBox. The division finally started turning a profit in 2008, and it'll probably take years more to pay off the loss leader built up over the previous seven years.
However, give Microsoft credit for taking the long view, they're now firmly established, and even respected, in the gaming industry.