Did you read all your citations? ;-) One of them says Microsoft is cool because of a sticker of a ninja cat riding a fire-breathing unicorn.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/2/8134603/microsoft-is-cool-againStickers notwithstanding, seems to me that Android rules the mobile world and Apple acts as Porsche/Mercedes Benz for its loyal monied customers, while MS retains visibility only to its familiars. We should expect MS to be like VFP: of course there will be stalwarts forever, but the cool dudes have long since moved on.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
