Microsoft wants to push Windows 8 in the phone/pad direction with Metro and Metro applets. They promise developer riches via their AppStore. Clearly this model is already beginning to fray for a lot of developers who took this direction on Android and now iWidgets:

http://mobilephonedevelopment.com/archives/1396

It seems that iOS is going the same way as Android with the number of free apps growing at the expense of paid apps. 88 percent of the top-ranked 250 iOS applications are now free.

The problem is that more free apps get used and hence these are the ones recommended to others. This has a self-marketing effect. While Android developers have endured this for a long while it’s only been relatively recently (this year) that iOS app developers have had to resort to advertising or in-app purchases.

One question is why people won’t pay for apps. Alternatively, are developers at fault having lowered their prices to the point they have reached zero? I believe the main problem is that most apps actually have very little value. Most are ‘information’ apps that just provide a more convenient way of viewing things that are already available free via web sites. Dumbed down apps have resulted in dumbed down prices.
With the low market share of Phone 7 and trends like this on better received platforms, is anyone really going to invest much effort into Metro?

Platform churn can be a killer as well. Spend 6 months getting something marketable on Phone 7 and maybe sell it for 2 years until "Phone 8" ("New and improved - with dramatic technology shift!") comes out and your sales dry up and put you at Square One again.

Will there even be a Metro in "Windows 9" when it arrives in 2 or 3 years? Can you say Desktop Gadgets? Active Desktop?