My Windows Phone 7 Initial Impressions: Thumbs Up or Down?

I visited Microsoft shortly after Windows Phone 7 was announced at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year. I listened to what the Windows Phone 7 product and marketing teams had to say, looked at Windows Phone 7 on test hardware, and left totally underwhelmed. The list of features that were lost on the way from Windows Mobile 6 to Windows Phone 7 were devastating to me. I was unimpressed by the performance I saw.