Microsoft’s Windows juggernaut is collapsing as it tries to support 20 years of applications and becomes more complicated by the minute. Meanwhile, Windows has outgrown hardware and customers are pondering skipping Vista to wait for Windows 7. If Windows is going to remain relevant it will need radical changes.
That sobering outlook comes courtesy of Gartner.

With the introduction of an Interface Builder and revised APIs, which debuted in Apple’s second beta edition of the iPhone software development kit (SDK) yesterday, developers have a more complete set of tools for putting their code into realistic operation under the included “Aspen” Simulator. Below is a video demonstration of PhotoBoard, an application that started its life under the “Jailbreak” umbrella, and was then ported to the official SDK. The program presents a grid surface upon which photos from the user library can be laid. The grid can then be navigated, and photos rotated and manipulated. It’s essentially akin to Microsoft’s Surface in look and feel. [If you’re on an iPhone, click here to view the video]

The iPhone is definitely turning into an enterprise heavyweight. Tom Gibbons, head of Microsoft's Specialized Devices and Applications Group (which houses their Mac developers) confirmed to Fortune that Microsoft is looking at bringing native Office apps to the iPhone with the SDK: "To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we're actually in the process of trying to understand that now." And why wouldn't they? On top of Office apps, TellMe, which Microsoft picked up last year, does voice recognition software, mostly for Windows Mobile, but their general manager said that they're "absolutely going to get a version out there as soon as we can, get TellMe out there on the iPhone." So yes, Microsoft plans to be all over your iPhone.

Analysts are like Tarot card readers with MBAs, making speculative predictions based on little more than the direction of the wind and bird migration patterns. They follow a similar marketing practice too - the first reading is free, but the second will cost you, and cost you.

Avi Greengart, Research Director for market research firm Current Analysis, says Adobe’s Flash player performs poorly on iPhone, in its current incarnation, proving more trouble than it’s worth.