I've mentioned for several years that I think Microsoft is in decline. It's still profitable, it's still a behemoth, and it's not going to disappear, but there have been a number of problems and business decisions that have taken some time to fully manifest within the marketplace. John Gruber goes into a lengthy analysis of some of the factors.
To be clear, Microsoft remains a very profitable company. However, they have never before reported year-over-year declines like this, nor fallen so short of projected earnings. Something is awry...
...I’m not arguing that Microsoft will collapse. They’re too big, too established for that to happen. I simply think that their results this quarter were not an aberration, but rather the first fiscal evidence of a long, slow decline that began several years ago.
