You see this as desperate.... sounds more like intelligence with the fact that both of these are the largest in their respective fields. If anything, this should put other *platforms* on notice that Linux is more than a grassroots force.
Symbian should be thinking carefully here, but they are easily included with this. MS, Google, and even Apple have something to think about globally. Should be fun...
...for users, this is going to get hairy.
The mobile phone business as you think about it is dead. And MS is by no means trying to play there. The use the mobile as a piece to their strategy. And for that, WinPhone7 is a very nice play. Like Nokia with Ovi, they need things to be executed tight and well. That's all.
Oh yea, and enterprise IT depts just got sad; they lost their control and "elite prestige" since computing for the masses is what they now do normally. Just watch.