Bill,

MS doesn't (yet) earn $ just because you have MS software- they earn $ when you buy MS software, frequently because it's on your new PC.

Quoting Carolina Milanesi from Gartner: "While there will be some individuals who retain both a personal PC and a tablet, especially those who use either or both for work and play, most will be satisfied with the experience they get from a tablet as their main computing device. As consumers shift their time away from their PC to tablets and smartphones, they will no longer see their PC as a device that they need to replace on a regular basis." Not replacing PC = unlikely to make a MS purchase.

Big firms used to be bastions of PC updating, but they're economizing and even are moving right away from the PC. E.g. the latest annual BYOD report says 76 percent of firms with more than 2,000 employees have Bring Your Own Device programs, expected to reach 88 percent this year. In half these firms, employees pay for devices and supporting services, such as cellular data for cell phones, tablets and some laptops. In this respect, the numeric dominance of tablets and smartphones already is making a difference.

Finally, both Apple and Google are coming up with ways to overcome the size limitations of mobile devices. Google Glass has a bigger screen than any notebook and the iPhone now hooks wirelessly to your keyboard and TV to mimic a PC. Truthfully, if you could place your phone on your desk and it connected to your keyboard, monitor and Cloud apps to deliver a similar experience to your PC, why would you complain? Especially if you could do the same at work, at the library or wherever it is appropriate to offer these facilities.