We'll see. Microsoft is putting out HUGE amounts of money into it again and are actually paying all the big manufacturers to release a phone or two. If they'll also spend that much for marketing (somehow I still don't see it but probably there'll be a bigger action as soon as these phones come out).
Most manufacturers are lazy though and they just make slight changes to their Android phones to run Windows 7 phone
But while HTC's Win7 phones are basically just like their Android counterparts - just with different buttons there's one great thing they did - Sense UI for Windows 7 is amazing.
Microsoft risks a lot. There's already iOS and Android on the market, Bada is a small and cheap OS, there's dying Symbian (a huge project that fails drastically because the market is getting overcrowded with better systems) and MeeGo from Nokia.
Microsoft sure did their job analyzing a potential demand but how it turns out - nobody knows. If it fails it will be a huge fail for Microsoft that will cost them a lot.
The only way that would work for me is if they forced low prices on their first wave of smartphones but to do this they would have to put out a lot of money again. Bare in mind that most Windows-running devices were much more expensive because the operating system adds about 50% to phone's original price. Android is free and you basically pay for hardware and manufacturer's software touches.
The only way I would try that system was if Win7 phones were actually cheaper than Android phones. But as you see it's very unlikely to happen, if not impossible unless Microsoft actually pays for it.
