"Does Microsoft not realize that all the spoils of the mobile web are going to the companies that control the front-end interface — that is, the big mobile OS players like Android and iPhone and not the fringe players like Windows Mobile?"<p>Sounds like what folks said about desktops in the late 90s.  History tells us that the device/PC ends up simply being a way to access the web.  Sure, there are always some intensive apps that require the local cpu, but those are rarely for the mass market.