SteveJ-restore-test

Update 1: Mary Jo Foley of ZDnet tips a launch of Windows 8 next week at AllThingsSD. From a Forbes blog: Microsoft’s Windows OS For Tablets Coming Next Week? May. 27 2011 - 12:11 pm, Agustino Fontevecchia A tablet-optimized, Windows OS could be ready to see the light of day as early as next week, according to recent market chatter and media reports. (designed for System on a Chip) ... at the Ira Sohn Conference, Einhorn, president of Greenlight Capital, said that it is “hard to envision success in mobile” for Microsoft, despite its recent partnership with Nokia. Why was Microsoft so slow to enter the tablet market? It has to do with Microsoft’s dominance of the PC operating system market. As the world leader in PC/Client platform space, with Windows as one of the most expensive components in a PC (along with the CPU), the company receives “anywhere between $40 and $100 for a Windows OS license with 85% contribution margin when someone buys a new PC,” explained Aggarwal. Lighter and c...

Update 1. Influential hedge-fund manager, David Einhorn president of Greenlight Capital, calls for Ballmer to stand aside. Update 2. The MSFT board stands behind Ballmer, rejects David Einhorn's call to stand aside. Einhorn has 9M MSFT shares (0.011%). He's bought because he thinks they're undervalued. This could just be a media beat-up by him to make some money - the share price has increased. Whatever the cause, this is a significant milestone. The MSFT board has had to consciously and publicly defend their continued choice of Ballmer as CEO. Original: From Reuters, Bill Rigby,  SEATTLE, Mon May 23, 2011 IBM passes Microsoft's market cap after 15 years Since the Internet technology bubble burst in 2000, the tables have been reversed and Microsoft's stock has been stagnant as investors doubt its ability to move beyond its Windows operating system and Office suite of software An investor putting $100,000 into both stocks 10 years ago would now have about $143,000...

Adam Harthung at Forbes wrote Why Not All Earnings Are Equal; Microsoft Has the Wal-Mart Disease, byline is May3, 2011.  Read the article, says more than I can, with more (economic) facts and more eloquently. It's only ever been about the company's economic performance. Poor products and ignoring your customers only ever have one outcome. Sad for the employees and shareholders, though. Please note , I am specifically saying that Microsoft products are NOT doomed, just the company. Winders on the Corporate Desktop isn't going away anytime soon (2-3 decades to run at least). Too much invested, too many careers tied to it and the Lemmings Rush hasn't turned elsewhere yet... The next two Big Questions for Microsoft, the company: How soon before the Board notices and removes Ballmer? Who will be the eventual purchaser of the profitable lines-of-business - Windows and Corporate solutions?