Specc has a point, I think the only way to make a smartphone viable is to build a viable ecosystem. One that supports developers, one they want to work on, one that basically either pays the bills or allows an itch to be scratched.

Opensource allows developers to scratch an itch in a way that cannot be readily achieved with a closed ecosystem if that ecosystem is not already established like the IOS environment. Problem is that a new closed ecosystem will not make headway against the more open and established competitor such as Android, it will always be still born.

If not to scratch an itch then but to pay the bills the developer wants, needs, to know there is both longevity to the ecosystem and a wide customer base willing to make a return on the development effort. Microsoft demonstrably does not have a track record of providing this, especially with WP7 and Microsofts legacy desktop strength just doesn't help in this arena.

The profit for the provider of the OS platform or hardware is largely irrelevant from this perspective. Their sole role in this is to make the very best platform necessary to support the end users and their primary means to achieve this is only through these third party volunteer developers and this job is simply made infinitely more difficult if the hardware vendor has little say in the way the OS ecosystem is provided and maintained.

The only other developers that might be interested would be corps wanting a platform to promote their wares but that doesn't make for an attractive end user device, (unless Angry Birds is sufficient).

So a limited ecosystem from a new contender like "WPanything plus anyTin" will have an uphill struggle for many years and dropping support for versions after such a short time is only going to make it harder to justify developing for.

So on balance, I can see why Specc believes that quasi academic geek disputes really don't have relevance in Speccs world.

However since Specc is so ready to dismisses the very geeks and insult the very developers who are the only people whose mindshare is absolutely mandatory to help build a successful ecosystem then "WPanything plus anyTin" is already destined to fail at a fundamental level that is entirely non-technical and entirely predictable.

You only have to look at Specc to know that to be true.

rgds