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So please, you can go take your business elsewhere. Won't make any difference to anything.

Well, which is it, Kwasi? A free market that makes the rules, or an irresistable Microsoft juggernaut (I can take my businesss elsewhere, but... it won't really matter anyway). Personally, I think that there is nothing irresistable about Microsoft being in the cell phone/PDA space. I could count on them only to try to find ways to leverage their desktop monopoly into handsets. Companies like Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Palm, Blackberry, et al know that they live in a heterogeneous, interconnected world. As far as Microsoft is concerned, it is too often a world unto itself (Embrace, Extend, Destroy). More proprietary protocols and file formats. Nothing works quite right unless you're using Microsoft soup to nuts... No thanks, Kwasi. You may love Microsoft now (Lord knows for years I trusted them implicitly and used and advocated their products), but wait till they start pissing you off and limiting your realistic choices. Then you might realize that no matter how much of a raving fan you are, the company is moving aggressively in every space to hem you in and limit your options.

"Well, which is it, Kwasi? A free market that makes the rules, or an irresistable Microsoft juggernaut (I can take my businesss elsewhere, but... it won't really matter anyway)."

Of course free markets make the rules.
Equally, Microsoft usually keeps at something till they grab a significant market share.
Right now Symbian rules in the smart phone business, but Microsoft's Smartphone software has been increasing market share over the past year or so.
Will Microsoft ever have 100% of any market?
Never. Least of all the smart phone business.
That is why I said, it's perfectly ok for you to go use some other company's smart phone software.
Let's face it, there are millions of people who will never use Microsoft software, for all kinds of reasons.
You appear to be someone very determined not to use Microsoft software on your cell phones.
That is fine with me (not that it makes any difference to you if its fine with me or not).

"Then you might realize that no matter how much of a raving fan you are, the company is moving aggressively in every space to hem you in and limit your options."

Today, the real powerhouse in the smart phone business is Nokia, who effectively control Symbian.
Microsoft is only just beginning to compete in that space, increasing market share fast, but from a very , very small base.
So I think Microsoft is actually increasing people's options in the smart phone space, saving them from what was an effective Nokia/Symbin monopoly.