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> I'm still baffled about how Microsoft is still trying to out-Apple Apple when they've repeatedly proven it's a disastrous strategy (see: Zune).

I don't see how they're trying to out-Apple Apple in this case. They're releasing a mobile operating system for third party vendors to create hardware for. Remove "mobile" and this is the exact same thing they've been doing all along.

> Microsoft are kings of productivity software and the corporate desktop. They own business communications. They own corporate email. So when it comes to revitalizing their phone product, they focus on the twittering tweens?

Are you forgetting that they're also still king of the consumer desktop? I highly doubt that their 85% market share[1][2] is business alone. Apple isn't selling more computers than all manufacturers combined[3].

[1] http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-shar... [2] http://www.statowl.com/operating_system_market_share.php [3] http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/01/hp-reclaims-top-spot-in-p...



> Are you forgetting that they're also still king of the consumer desktop?

They're probably still the majority shareholder, but I wouldn't call them kings. And if they are kings, they're leading a dying kingdom. Have you seen the iPad sales numbers recently?


> And if they are kings, they're leading a dying kingdom. Have you seen the iPad sales numbers recently?

Here are the Q1 2012 numbers:

PC sales [1]: 88.9 million

iPad sales [2]: 11.8 million

About 13% as many iPad sales as PC sales. While the iPad sales are impressive, it doesn't seem like PCs are dying yet.

[1] http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1981717

[2] http://www.abiresearch.com/press/3919


From a 0% to 13% in just 2 years sounds pretty good to me.


How many of those PCs were sold to homes?


What are the numbers for 2011?


There is no denying that the traditional laptop/desktop market is slowly dying away due to the iPad (and soon Windows 8 tablets), but I don't understand why this should drive them to build a business only device. Microsoft is still a very consumer oriented company, in addition to their business "kingdom".


>> Have you seen the iPad sales numbers recently?

Another one living in Apple's reality distortion field.




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