They will be. I will tell you how. IF, MS comes up with a phone, it will overtake all OEM's specs that's for sure.
I still don't get it.
Microsoft control the os, and the chipsets, so getting a Microsoft phone will just guarantee you a worse app selection than every other phone.
The hardware won't be much different to any other OEMs, best case scenario you'll have the first phone with a certain chipset. Give it a month all other oems will be putting out the same hardware.
The surface is a nice device, and the surface phone mock pictures look stunning, but that's it. It won't change the world.
Best case scenario, maybe Microsoft will offer cheap credit to buy the phone, so everyone buys them from Microsoft and runs them on payg. They already do it with the Xbox, so it's a possibility, and it gets around all the carrier frustrations.