Microsoft has always wanted to become its competitors. The reference to devices sounds to me like they would rather be Apple or Sony. Services probably signifie

Microsoft has always wanted to become its competitors. The reference to devices sounds to me like they would rather be Apple or Sony. Services probably signifies their wish to be Amazon or some other company that makes its entire living on the internet. Just because there is no real competition in the PC OS and productivity software markets doesn't mean there's nothing there worth hanging on to. They don't sound very interested in the industry they created and still dominate. Whoever they would rather be, there's a good chance their fate is tied up with software, for better or worse, so it benefits them nothing to prematurely write it off for dead. Expending so much energy in coveting what Apple and Google have leads to missteps like Metro.