I don't think people are going to like watching ads on their devices when waiting an agonising 30 seconds for the Chess game to load.

AppStore earns just its expenses and exists to move iPhones and iTouches.

This item looks very sweet.

Okay, the pre-production sample in the video is about the size of a decent lunch, but that's why they call it a pre-production unit.

When they get the miniaturization going, there's no telling what the final release will look like.

However, my guess is that t'll be a tad bigger and maybe a tiny bit thicker than an AT&T Tilt (HTC TyTnII/Kaiser).

The point that it runs WinXP will be a huge selling point. If MS lets them license it and complete against WinMo 6.0, 6.1, 6.5 and soon 7.0.

There's also good news. Microsoft has made it very clear that the Marketplace does not demand exclusivity. In other words, developers are still free to offer their application in whatever other, non-Marketplace way they deem fit. This means that the existing software distribution model of Windows Mobile (i.e., download and install from wherever you want) remains intact.

This last point makes all the other points about the Marketplace rather moot. Microsoft is clearly following Palm's model of allowing users to install whatever applications they want via whatever means they want on their own phones.

On a related note: given how expensive Marketplace is and how easy it is to manually install apps - I really can't see developers uptake on Marketplace being anywhere near as successful as Android or the iPhones. In fact, I think the only thing that could sell the Marketplace now would be the weight of the name "Microsoft".

The point that it runs WinXP will be a huge selling point.

"Standby time -- about 5 days"

I doubt my regular cell phone could last that long without making or receiving any calls.

Really? Personally i couldn't think of anything worse than running XP on a mobile phone. It's completely the wrong tool for the job.

Sounds more like the song title from some Euro-techno-trance band.

What's an "iTouch"? I don't see it listed anywhere on Apple's site.

"Microsoft is clearly following Palm's model of allowing users to install whatever applications they want via whatever means they want on their own phones.

In an un-modified condition I agree that WinXP is ill-suited for mobile/phone devices. If the company making the XPPhone has optimized & tweaked WinXP for the purpose, it could end up being very strong. Perhaps stronger than current WinMobile versions available.

Consider the possibility of perhaps being able to run full programs & apps instead of scaled-down mobile versions. In certain circumstances I could see as being preferable to potential professional & business customers, which appears to be the target market for such a device.

Time will ultimately tell.

"There's also good news. Microsoft has made it very clear that the Marketplace does not demand exclusivity. In other words, developers are still free to offer their application in whatever other, non-Marketplace way they deem fit. This means that the existing software distribution model of Windows Mobile (i.e., download and install from wherever you want) remains intact.

This last point makes all the other points about the Marketplace rather moot. Microsoft is clearly following Palm's model of allowing users to install whatever applications they want via whatever means they want on their own phones.

I was a long time Symbian user (5+ years). I avoid MS products whenever I can (I run linux on my laptop, and OS X on everything else). I was an OS/2 zealot, and swore to never support Microsoft.

A friend of mine who is heavily into OS X recommended HTC phones to me. OK, it came with Windows Mobile OS, but she is a gadget freak so I trusted her.

It's better than all the Symbian stuff I had. It works very well as both a phone and a PDA. I have it synced with my laptop, and can tether it without jumping through the hoops that Android and iPhone users have to jump through.

I can develop applications on it using eTCL. The worst thing about it is the browser is IE, and I don't like the Opera browser.

I find it really depressing that techies are so blinkered they can't see when good technology is in front of them - even if it does come from the company that has held back personal computing for at least a decade.

I'm not blinkered. Even though it works so well, I'm considering getting an iPhone or an Android phone. But everytime I look at them I can't see any benefit over my HTC phone.

Maybe people should be looking at HTC phones. Maybe it's their modifications to Windows Mobile that makes it good.

The whole point of the Apple App store is that the model of "wild west" development doesn't work for mobile apps. You get poorly written apps with no QC running amok all over the device. Sure it's nice for devs "to do whatever they want". But when the "order" is chaos all the developers resort to writing exactly the same resource-intensive, poor UI apps they write for Windows... in other words, without rigorous following of some rules for development, developers will just keep repeating the same software from 1995 instead of using the new modern tools their given.