The Windows OS is rapidly losing its monopoly powers. Apple is, of course, a huge vertically-integrated threat. Hardware manufactures, which were once solidly tied to Windows, are becoming increasingly promiscuous, with Android, Chrome, and variation of Unix or Linux operating systems.
Microsoft cannot just chose a strategy or business model in isolation — it has to consider the ever-more-rapidly-changing environment it operates within.
I'm beginning to get it, beginning to see, grudgingly, today's marketplace is quite different from yesterday's PC v. Unix v. Mac desktop wars...
It is "ever-more-rapidly-changing." Geeze I feel old.
Thanks very much for your reply.