Microsoft and Phone 7 Fragmentation

An article over at TechCrunch by MG Siegler delves into Microsoft's approach to Phone 7 and how updates will deploy. Microsoft got the control they wanted with constrained spec's for manufacturers, but this also places the burden on them for tactical leadership in a way WinMobile never did. 

MSFT will have to get the balance between new features and filling in missing pieces by pulling actionable signal from all the market noise, not easy to do when you are not actually building devices yourself. The timing for something like cut/paste has to be balanced with a differentiating new feature. Android does this with many eyes and many ears, a cross manufacturer, continuous snap to OS tip revision grind that aint pretty. The end result being consumers find at their semi-annual refresh window, the top couple Android fragments that are actually competitive with iOS.

MSFT has deep pockets and can spend time building up the OS feature set, but really has to break new ground to thrust forward and catch up in ways not yet seen from them in mobile.