1. That would essentially be walking away from the mobile market, which does not seem to be a real option. Integrating Apple/Android devices with Microsoft woul

1. That would essentially be walking away from the mobile market, which does not seem to be a real option. Integrating Apple/Android devices with Microsoft would require building apps on others' platforms. This is a decent alternative strategy, but cannot be the only one. MS made their fortune by controlling the platform everyone built apps on during the PC revolution, and they know very well indeed what can happen if you're not the one controlling the platform. 2. Agreed, Apple's product strategy is very different. I was just making the point that minority marketshare is not the show-stopper many think it is. Note that Microsoft has been making decent profits in various non-software license businesses for the past few years, including consumer electronics (XBox, Surface Pro), Azure and recently, even Bing. Their revenue streams are a lot more diverse than people give credit for. 3. This sounds reasonable, and gels with the detailed comment above from calbear81: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9852898 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9852898