[sand88]

Microsoft is willing to mostly stay out of the hardware game, ensuring that there will be a very wide range of suitable computers for its products to run on.

All your comments were good, but this one is important.

Love or hate Microsoft a good bit of hardware innovation has come about because Microsoft stayed away from hardware design.

[tacticalogic]

Love or hate Microsoft a good bit of hardware innovation has come about because Microsoft stayed away from hardware design.

I've asked many an Apple fan who brags about Apple's "business model" if they think the industry would be better off today if Microsoft had adopted that same model of proprietary hardware. I have yet to have any of them say they think it would.