While Microsoft may not feel at home in a mobile world, it seems to be giving hints and indications that it will be dumping .NET and focusing on HTML5 and JavaScript. While it’s great to see Microsoft take HTML5 more seriously, dumping .NET may be a premature decision that will come back to bite them in the wallet.
Many industry analysts see the problem as one of a technological edge. With Windows desktop PCs, Microsoft is clearly in the lead, and definitely has an edge. With mobile, not so much. The issue is that if Microsoft moves to HTML5 and JavaScript, it has no edge–everyone can (and does) use those technologies, there are many tools out there, and they have no hold on that part of the industry.
The industry won’t really know Microsoft’s intentions until they either make them known or give out enough clues–until that happens, if you don’t already know JavaScript, it’s time to start learning.