Microsoft Kneecaps Current Windows Mobile Users

Business Insider has an interesting graph showing the decline of Microsoft in the U.S. share of the smartphone market. Its been brought up that raw sales numbers should also be looked at. However regardless of what numbers you use, the announcement of Windows Phone 7 Series this week will have the following effects:

1. Sales of existing Windows Mobile phones will plummet.

2. Developers of current Windows Mobile OS apps will halt development and redirect efforts.

3. All current Windows Mobile phone owners will begin looking for a new phone.

The assumption that Microsoft is banking on is that people in the #2 and #3 groups above will all flock to Phone 7. However if that doesn't exist for 6 months at least, there's a lot of time for those groups to be looking at competitors.