I think the article is just pointing out some of the concerns that investors have about Microsoft's growth prospects going forward. The stock is nearing its low for the year as people take note on a multitude of issues the company currently has facing them . Some of the ones I outline may overlap the article but there are the ones I can think of off the top of my head
1. Wintel. The windows/intel dominated pc landscape is changing pretty rapidly. You are seeing the reaction in Intel more aggressively as they had to revise their earnings outlook downward because PC sales are doing poorly (as evident by slowing sales at HP, Dell and pretty much every PC maker) If fewer pc's are sold, fewer microsoft licenses are sold.
2. Coming to the tablet and phone OS war late
3. Soft response to Surface and Windows Mobile 8
4. Fiscal cliff
5. Window 8 not business/government friendly
6. Bing not competitive with Google in search
7. Questionable acquistions
Xbox and its prospects are at the bottom in terms of need, even though I think Microsoft will continue to invest in that part of the business.
