You're being short sighted.

How do you think gaming consoles affected companies that create those games? How did the people have to change their skill sets to move to the next console?

How did moving from 8 track to cassette affect the companies that made the tapes and recording devices, or even the playback devices?

Even customers complained. I have heard MANY people complain about their libraries of VHS tapes that are pretty much useless, "It's too expensive to buy everything again on DVD". That became, "It's too expensive to buy everything again on Blueray". I'm now hearing, "I have to move everything now to the cloud? Do you know how much I've invested in DVDs?" I know people that have thousands of dollars tied up in out dated movie technologies. That is not "little expense" to move to something new.

How about TV changes that are happening now? I don't have an HD flat panel TV. My old CRT TV works. But...broadcasters insist on using the wide screen to their advantage and I frequently see things cut off on the sides.

Technology shifts DO affect consumers in very real, financial ways.


>James is right, you're comparing apples to oranges. The Microsoft customer we are addressing are developers, someone who has invested a considerable sum into a piece of software, an asset that then has considerable value. When MS changes course the value of that asset is affected,sometimes tremendously and that customer is hurt. OTOH a piece of hardware like video player, or a game console has no comparable value to a customer, nothing anywhere near what a software application does to a developer or company who "rolls their own". Furthermore, there is little expense required to "retrain" for another video player, automobile, and so forth.
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>You mention IBM, a wise company, on whose systems you can still run applications written in '74 COBOL, PL/1, RPG-II, BAL, and more, languages dating back decades. This protects the investment their customers have in their software. MS could learn something from IBM.