Wow, With Windows Phone 7, Did Microsoft Actually Bring A Gun To A Gun Fight?

Like any good Apple fanboy , when I first heard that Microsoft would be rebooting their mobile strategy a couple years ago, I snickered. I'm sure I made some sarcastic remark along the lines of "this oughta be good." But over the past few months, I've actually been pleasantly and continuously surprised by what I've seen of Windows Phone 7 (the artist formerly known as Windows Phone 7 Series Phone, or something) -- enough to think that it actually might be good. Now, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. There are still a lot of "ifs" on the table. Microsoft is coming so late to the competent smartphone party that they had little room for error with Windows Phone 7. But after the public unveiling today , I think it's safe to say for now that they've successfully stuck the landing. Now they just have to run a marathon. Up a mountain. Against competitors that they gave a 20 mile head-start to.