The two issues that come out of the delivery bit are ...

1) Can they deliver Web Services tools & infrastructure these include
SOAP Servers, web browsers that support XML, XML support,
XML Parsers integrated into their OSes & servers & devel tools,
XSLT tools, Web Services support tools for UDDI support,
Web Services support tools for WSDL, etc: etc:

2) Can they deliver a robust range of useable Web Services and try to
get MS tame solution builders to use these and to charge those who
use them in live solutions a tax for the privilege.

The second is probably the MS true end goal as it provides the new revenue model MS so desperately want. A constant drip feed of funds each time anyone
access one of their web services or a web service constructed by 3rd parties
from proprietary MS tools.

This was what Blackbird was all about but MS got thwarted that time round.

Cheers

Doug Marker