Well actually I think that Vista’s development was a drag on earnings, in that now that the bulk of Vista development is over, they no longer have to spend the money on development.
Although that makes sense, MS has to continuously invest in research and developement, right now they are working on their next OS as we speak.They really don’t see that much of a drop off in developement costs as they are continuously in developement in a product and continously rise over time.