I guess that the answer to your first question relates to how much faith shareholders have in those contracts as a way to keep the average cost of Windows high.

I guess that the answer to your first question relates to how much faith shareholders have in those contracts as a way to keep the average cost of Windows high. Milking a cash cow is not a win-lose, binary process. It is a matter of how much & how long. Tiered pricing would make me edgy. The answer to your second question is lack of competitive pressure. Windows isn't ideal for netbooks. When they came out first, Linux looked like it might win. But it didn't. They kept netbooks windows. They did this without a fight, without a netbook strategy. At this point, there are no new competitors & no problematic trend. They now have a netbook strategy. Flawed or not, this is better then no strategy. Why should shareholders be worried.