The iPhone is good for Windows Mobile....and further development of Windows Mobile is good for the iPhone. Having spent a lot of time on various forums (since I run a few
), all parties have issues with their operating systems. Each time a developer "raises the bar", it causes the other team to get movin'. Both consumer and business users will make use of a smartphones browser. Safari on the iPhone still blows me away. To me, IE still lacks when compared to the age-old Palm Blazer browser. From the WM 7 screenshots, it looks like we'll finally get the "real Internet" on WM devices. This is huge. It's certainly possible that the iPhone had something to do with it. Not to mention, Android is coming and I'm sure that will bring something new to the table - pushing the envelope further.
On the flip side, I'm sure there will be plenty of companies that go overboard and develop their version of the iPhone. While it's important to "borrow" some of the good aspects of the iPhone, I certainly don't want a device that is essentially a bastardized version of the iPhone.
I do not want Motorola (or Palm or BlackBerry) to abandon the keyboard and I doubt they will. The tactile response of a QWERTY is still a major selling point. However, I've always said it'd be nice to see a Windows Mobile Professional version of the Q. Samsung appears to be working on a touch-screen Blackjack and there were rumors of a
Moto Q touch screen floating around a few months back.
Should be interesting to see where Moto goes with development from a hardware perspective.