I have a theory that there are three main markets for computer usage, each of which has different characteristics: recreational, productivity and gaming. The r

I have a theory that there are three main markets for computer usage, each of which has different characteristics: recreational, productivity and gaming. The recreational market cares about media, information, news, music, video, 2D games, sharing pictures, Facebook, Skype etc. Typically these are typically the home users. They want free, but don't mind ads. They care about good design and intuitive interfaces. For them the PC is a large tablet. They are usually quick to adapt new technology, because there is nothing that binds them to one platform. Then there is the productivity market. These involves all kinds of professional software: MS Office, AutoCAD, Photoshop, IDEs, financial software, video editing, Share point. Customers here are often Enterprises, who care about reducing cost and risk. They are normally slow to adapt new technology (yes I am look at you, IE6), but care about the latest buzzwords. If the prices for some software is too low they get suspicious. This market also includes hobbyists. They don't mind learning curves for software, which will tie them in. Now MS Office (mainly Word, Excel and Outlook) is an interesting case, because it is the only productivity app that even most home users use. In many cases it is the only thing that ties them to Windows. I don't think there is any viable replacement for it yet, which has the same usability, functionality and compatibility (and I say that even though I myself solely use Google Docs). Finally there is the gaming market. They care about running the newest 3D games on the lastest hardware, which makes them good customers because they regularly buy new computers. Now it is easy to think the MS is on the way out on the recreational market, but a) that is not the only and maybe not even the biggest market and b) let's not forget that there is overlap (most recreational users are also productivity users). Microsoft may loose some revenue, but I don't think it they will get bought out for patents by Oracle any time soon.