Microsoft is about to drive a wedge into the mobile market

"design and quality only appeal to a subset of consumers"… so this means what exactly? Microsoft isn't focusing on design and quality? Who doesn't care about these things? How can that possibly be a separating factor?

People have been repeatedly stating that "Apple risks losing its dominance based on its closed system" - and that has never materialized. Yet people still say it. VentureBeat keeps writing it. And if anything - Apple has proven the exact opposite.

Its iPhone division makes more money than all of Microsoft. That very division is based on the premise that people do care about design and quality. How can the author possibly ignore this?

I, for one, am hoping Apple gets a challenge in this space. Competition is good for the consumer and right now it's a one-horse race and Apple is completely crushing the competition by not even trying to compete. Think on that - they just push new products, and everyone else scrambles to try and differentiate themselves… and they fail!

Someday Apple will have competition in this arena. And of all the candidates out there I can see it being Microsoft. The company is quite strong and if Ballmer finally gets the boot - yes I can see a new wave of optimism and effort here. Maybe.

To suggest that it's in the offing right now? With what - a consumer preview of Windows 8 that no one really likes? I don't know how you can put your name to that article.

As far as the vast array of software goes, isn't it all going to have to be rebuilt for the new platforms (ARM etc) anyway? And if you want people to develop for Metro they're going to have to develop for that rather than just offering the same old software.

I really don't see the advantage MS is supposed to have here.

Apple is getting my money because they have a compelling product NOW. That's the name of the game in business. This is old-fashioned Microsoft FUD, from a fanboy to boot.