Well, five years ago, Microsoft-owned subsidiary Danger released the Sidekick LX 2009, which used NetBSD as its operating system, used a JVM derivative, and a browser not based on IE. Everything old is new again.
But 5 years ago it was axiomatic that Microsoft would throw such a system away, and replace it with something underwhelming. In this case, the Kin, a total disaster.
We're now seeing that Microsoft may be starting to rid itself of the platform tax that's crippled so many of their efforts. In the case of the Kin, that even included Exchange support, which wasn't a desiderata for its market (and to make things worse, the code/libraries the Kin team was supplied were extremely buggy).
> But 5 years ago it was axiomatic that Microsoft would throw such a system away, and replace it with something underwhelming.
Is not not axiomatic that the Nokia Android phone is a temporary thing? They aren't trying to build a line of Android phones, they are trying to retain market share as a phone manufacturer until Windows Phone is more successful.
Either Windows Phone becomes a solid 3rd place Smartphone OS, and they kill their Android line, or Windows Phone becomes an obvious failure, and they sell the remnants of Nokia. Either way, 6 years from now MS will no longer be selling Android phones.
But I'll agree the long term outcomes you sketch out are likely. The article itself indicated this phone is in part intended to get you to later buy a higher grade and branded Windows Phone.
