Microsoft's open approach to web services in Windows Phone "contrasts positively with recent moves by its competitors." That's one of the interesting points that John Collins makes in his editorial for today's 'Irish Times' on why Mango is a pleasant surprise, and one that in some areas has overtaken rival operating systems.

There are two things I like about this editorial. The first is the historical colour Collins gives as background, looking back at the anti-trust fines, Windows XP, and the mis-steps made with Windows Mobile, Vista, and security breeches. I think it's important he points out that while Microsoft have made some big mis-steps, they're still a strong company. The second is that they seem to get the sharing and open nature that is needed to interact with the modern Web 2.0 world:

The Web 2.0 movement was ushering in a new era of openness and collaboration which I felt the Redmond giant was going to fail to capitalise on spectacularly. In fact, I never thought I’d type the following sentence. Microsoft’s recent approach to the web and mobile displays a more fundamental understanding of how people are going to want to engage with ubiquitous web access than Google, Apple and Facebook, the current leaders in the space.

My evidence for this claim? Three weeks spent living with Nokia’s Lumia 800, which runs the latest version of Windows Phone 7, codenamed Mango.

What will readers of the Irish Times make of this? A mainstream editorial saying that the Windows Phone (and the upcoming Windows 8 platform) are cutting edge, that has some advantages over the more popular iOS and Android smartphones? It's going to pitch it as an equal int heir mind, it's going to make a sale in the stores a little bit easier, and it continues the push to make Windows Phone a choice that is equal to the the other smartphone platforms.