Wow. The next version of the Palm Treo will run Windows Mobile

According to press releases, Palm will announce the Treo 700 on this coming Monday. The big news is that a Palm device will not run the Palm OS, but rather Windows Mobile. That's almost like Apple announcing a new computer that doesn't run the Mac OS.

A few thoughts:

1. Verizon is promoting the fact that the new Treo 700 will initially be available only from Verizon, and will specifically only support EVDO for high-speed data. Verizon is not a GSM operator. Does this spell the end for GSM (and more importantly, unlocked) GSM phones from Palm?
2. Do we need another market (mobile OS) with only one (strong) provider? Windows Mobile may be great (I used an older version on my HP handheld and it was pretty good), but a little competition in this market would help things. The only real player left other than MS will by Symbian.
3. My next phone will be Microsoft powered, or I'll go with the next version of the Nokia 9300.