Given Windows Phone 7's track record so far, it's not optimistic. I suspect most of Microsoft's problems are probably mainly their history of screwing the industry (from customers to salespeople to vendors) repeatedly. Windows Phone 7 does seem like a FAR better device than its predecessors, in the Windows CE/Mobile lineage, but that might be cold comfort to everyone for whom they've ruined their brand. Nokia has managed to do similar brand-destroying mistakes and both of them joining together is unlikely to do anything to repair that no matter how good their product might end up being to some people.