[kezekiel]

So I think Microsoft is actually increasing people's options in the smart phone space, saving them from what was an effective Nokia/Symbin monopoly.

Symbian is not a Nokia monopoly. Symbian handsets are available from Nokia, Motorola, Siemens, Panasonic, and others. Applications can be written in Java and C++, rather than some proprietary MS language. And unlike Microsoft's handsets, you can choose to synch to something other than Outlook.

[KwasiOwusu]

"Symbian is not a Nokia monopoly. Symbian handsets are available from Nokia, Motorola, Siemens, Panasonic, and others"

I know that.
I was talking about the effective ownership and real control of Symbian.
Sure you can get Symbian phones from all those you mentioned, same as you can get Microsoft Windows PC's from lots of PC makers, but Microsoft still supplies the Windows OS, and has been accused of being a monopoly, not in PC's , but in PC operating systems.
By being the real power behind Symbian, and with Symban's huge market share, Nokia was in effect the OS monopoly for smart phone software.