[roopull]

I just hope they don't follow Google and Apple's model of limiting distribution to one or two carriers. The benefit of that from a corporate point of view is that you can quickly and easily build brand recognition. The downside to that is that you're fairly well limited to the customer base of those carriers.

The alternative is what HTC does... sell variants of the same phone to every carrier under the moon. Of course, the upside is that you're not limited in potential customers. The downside is obvious. Aside from those of us who has one, who the heck knows what an HTC is?

If Microsoft is clever, they'll sell the exact same phone with the exact same name to every carrier out there & watch us flock to it.



Microsoft has actually been down similar roads before. The Xbox and Zune are prime examples and are indicitave of the degrees of success they've had. The cell phone market is a little different... I, for one, hope they nail it.

Considering they're working on that clever "touch screen Windows" set up, a new Windows Mobile, and other related projects, I'm guessing they'll do quite well.