[gTen]

But the market is different these days..if they don't break through early on it will kill them for other reasons...

Remember that manufacturers actually have to PAY licensing fees to sell the OS to M$...where as using their own platforms and/or android is free.

So if you were a manufacturer..which handsets would you release..ones that that are more popular and you make more profit on..or less popular that you have to pay fees for thus making less money?

Remember, they pretty much killed off their winmo base with wp7 by the looks of things..if they don't break through..manufacturers and consumers will just abandon them little by little...

The mobile department also has high maintenance costs to M$ as well and if its not earning its keep it won't bode well..