Let me share some comments here as a Microsoft employee in the Windows Mobile team.
1. Microsoft is listening, and is aware of the problems with WMDC. Not only do I and many others regularly read these forums, we also have very active internal discussion groups where thousands of MS employees share their thoughts with the Windows Mobile team - very vocally and bluntly.
2. Please ensure you're using the latest version of WMDC (6.1) and the latest Vista patches and SP1. The updated version of WMDC fixes a lot of issues reported initially.
Download details: Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 for Windows Vista (32-bit)
3. As someone correctly pointed out, this particular sync product is not from the Windows Mobile team. It's from an offshoot of a Windows Live team somewhere else in the world, and unclear to me what that team's charter or priorities are. No Windows Mobile resources are being used on this project to the best of my knowledge. That's not saying that they're wasting their time. Since Microsoft operates in so many markets, sometimes different divisions develop stuff that is relevant for specific users. In some rare cases there may be overlap with existing products, but those get ironed out over time as regional innovations get rolled into bigger products.
4. I can see why it appears our focus has shifted from desktop sync to air sync. Competing with BlackBerry has been one of our biggest priorities for the last couple of releases, which is why air sync seems to be where most of the investments have gone. However, desktop sync certainly isn't dead and there's a lot of work going on to improve it as we speak. We're working on something big and exciting involving media, entertainment and apps to compete with the iPhone. Although I can't share details on this forum, I can say that desktop sync *will* get better.
5. Granted, progress on the next version of Windows Mobile front has been slow....no arguing there. It's frustrating, even to me as a member of the team that makes this stuff. However, realize that the sheer amount of work we're trying to do in this one release is massive. There are so many new features to create, lots of legacy code to port, thousands of 3rd party apps to support, new Live services to integrate, emerging competitors to match, new technologies to adopt, all amidst shifting priorities, that it's bound to be a bit challenging. However, I'm confident that the end product will be worth the wait, and have a strong value proposition for both - business users and consumers.
I'm not sure if this directly answers any of the questions in this thread, but I just wanted to share some perspective and let folks know that we're out here and listening.
-Mel Sampat
(Program Manager in the Outlook Mobile team)
melsam [at] microsoft.com