>The future is not all that bright for Microsoft. Google owns search. Facebook owns social. Twitter owns real time. Android is killing it in mobile. Apple is capturing the young minds. Apache dominates web server. Microsoft still owns the corporate desktop but with HTML5 allowing better UI, a paradigm shift is underway where end-users will be back to the equivalent of dumb terminals which will significantly reduce corporate IT staff minions. Google Chrome OS or something similar will own corporate desktops in the coming decade.
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>I see nothing but dwindling sales for Microsoft in the next decade. MS Office upgrades are pointless. Desktop OS upgrades are pointless. Server OS upgrades are pointless. WP7 is so far behind I doubt it will ever make much of a dent... even with the Nokia deal. Microsoft used to be a pack of piranhas that destroyed its competitors. Now it's a pack of cannibalistic piranhas in a slowly shrinking fishbowl.
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>I don't deny that MS is behind in certain areas - but in other areas their growth has been steady and even strong. They are beating Oracle in vendor selection processes. They've been on the magic quadrant for a few years now in the database/business intelligence space.
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>And I disagree with the "MS Office upgrades are pointless"....Office (and in particular Excel and PowerPivot) are part of their expanding BI stack.

Interesting perspective here:
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/360299/how_microsoft_powerpivot_will_disrupt_bi/

A little old (4 months), but I agree with his view (based on my experience so far)...