I keep hearing this same line over and over, that Microsoft should stick with the enterprise which is what they are good at. For anyone with more than 10 years

I keep hearing this same line over and over, that Microsoft should stick with the enterprise which is what they are good at. For anyone with more than 10 years experience, this kind of statement is hilarious because not that long ago Microsoft was laughed at as an 'enterprise' software company. Oracle, IBM, Tibco, SAS - these were enterprise companies and Microsoft was a consumer software company. But that by and large is unimportant history for what they face now. There has been a sea change in the relationship large corporations have with their information technology departments. For most of the time since computers became a basic necessity for white collar workers, the IT group dictated what devices could and should be used. They bought specific laptops or desktops and that was it. If you wanted to use a personal information management device like a Palm Pilot or Windows CE device, you had to plug it into the computer at the office. That meant IT had to approve the device because they needed to ensure its compatibility with their Windows setup and your enterprise infrastructure. I dont need to regurgitate what happened, but needless to say we no longer need that tether and devices now speak directly to the services. This frees management and workers to buy the devices they need and want. Upper management gets an iPhone or iPad and they want to work with it, IT has to bend. I have seen this in our consulting practice over and over - IT did not want to allow iPads but C*O level folks insisted and voila, we now support iPads. IT did not come around, they were forced by good consumer devices that just worked. Microsoft recognizes this sea change and knows that they have to be a player and a big one in the consumer device market as this market is now dictating to IT, not the other way around. Consumer devices now drive the choices in the enterprise so Microsoft cannot give up here, they have to double down.