3) WP8 and Windows 8 are converging into a single entity. Before long you'll be able to run a full desktop on your phone, all you need is a dock to connect it to a mouse/keyboard/monitor. This is a nice feature for a lot of people who just use their desktop PCs for typing out letters and browsing the internet.
If high-end smartphones are able to replace desktop PCs for light/casual users, Microsoft can take advantage of their desktop dominance. Apple of course could offer an OSX desktop, but Android would have to rely on gnome or kde, and although both of these are fine products, they haven't exactly proven themselves commercially.
Yes absolutely. Both Windows and OSX/iTunes have existing desktop/tv mediacenter lock-in they can take advantage of to secure (imprison) new customers. Android doesn't have such a firm grip on its users. The strongest lock-in Google has is their online services like Gmail, Docs etc and even there it's really easy to export everything and use it on a different platform (which ironically is why i am a Google fanboy). I don't know whether Chrome OS/GoogleTV will become a viable platform to allow Android users to easily extend their mobile computing onto the desktop and tv or maybe another Linux distro will steal that opportunity (I recently saw Canonical demontrate some pretty seamless transitioning between Android and Ubuntu). Both Microsoft and Apple are moving towards the cloud with many of their services so maybe that's where the war will be fought, but I don't know if I see the whole app ecosystems moving along with them.
If high-end smartphones are able to replace desktop PCs for light/casual users, Microsoft can take advantage of their desktop dominance. Apple of course could offer an OSX desktop, but Android would have to rely on gnome or kde, and although both of these are fine products, they haven't exactly proven themselves commercially.
Interesting times ahead, methinks.