Some notes out of a "Breakfast with Ballmer" (in Boston no less, for you lovers of all things alliterative) showed an interesting exchange between the Microsoft CEO and a former Lotus executive.

As recounted by correspondent Scott Kirsner on Boston.com:

The one sparky interchange -- no surprise -- seems to have been initiated by angel investor (and former Lotus exec) John Landry, who said it seemed to him that Microsoft is still very much focused on desktop computing, and considers all other devices to be peripherals to the PC. Landry waved his iPhone and said he does 80 percent of his work on that device. Ballmer responded by saying that Microsoft was aware that it has to do much better with Windows Mobile 7, its forthcoming mobile operating system (the release of which has been pushed back into 2010). "We know we have to kill on that one," a meeting attendee recalled Ballmer saying. (I've got a call in to Landry, to get his version of the discussion about the iPhone.)

Twitter entrepreneur Laura Fitton also noted that very few people are developing Twitter apps for Windows Mobile. Ballmer responded by saying Microsoft realizes that the company is engaged in a long campaign to get more developers writing apps for the Windows Mobile OS.

Hmmmmm. Tens of thousands of apps out there, but nobody's developing for Windows Mobile? "Very few" Twitter apps? We've got a couple hundred apps in the Windows Marketplace for Mobile already, and we're expecting tons more next month in Phase II. Anybody else smell trouble here?

Members of the Windows Mobile team got together after the first day of Microsoft's Tech-Ed conference in Los Angeles to talk application development and discuss the upcoming Windows Marketplace for Mobile. It's an interesting video, albeit 42 minutes long, and well worth a watch. For you busy bees, a couple of interesting points:

• Widgets will be exclusive to the Marketplace. Don't expect to be able to sideload widgets, because they have to be signed (read: certified), and that can only be done through the Marketplace certification process.
• A widget, for all intents and purposes, has the same status as an app. That includes counting toward the first five apps submitted for $99.
• Certification will give end users peace of mind that an app won't brick their phone.
• No Silverlight on Windows Mobile 6.5.
• They didn't get to do everything they wanted with Windows Mobile 6.5. Just ran out of time.
• Marketplace will launch in 55 nations, 29 of which will have for-pay stores as well as free apps.

Check out the entire Tech-Ed video here.