> Am i the only person here who finds this really exciting?
Microsoft execs from the mobile division will have huge bonuses this year. They must be very excited.
> Windows 7 is probably the best piece of software I have ever used
I had to force myself not to laugh. What have you been using, pal?
> and yes I have a MacBook pro and an iPhone
Seriously, what's so good about Windows 7?
> so I'm not some fanboy
Nobody accused you of being one, yet.
> with two juggernaut companies putting their very survival on the line
Only Nokia is dying. Microsoft will go on for at least a couple decades before it hits the ground.
> no matter what happens the consumers will be the ultimate winners of such brutal competition
We will have the same number of competing platforms (Nokia won't be the only one selling WP7) at the cost of losing one stellar hardware supplier. No. That won't be good.
The thing is, with Android, when Samsung makes something good to it, everybody benefits, LG, Motorola, the Apache Harmony folks and it trickles all the way to Red Hat, IBM and even Oracle. Even Microsoft, because a lot of their stack is BSD-ish and Microsoft can incorporate it, no questions asked, into whatever products they want. If Nokia ever succeeds in making something that kind of makes WinMo7 suck less (I gather it's a somewhat decent platform) Microsoft stands to benefit the most.