Why Nintendo is failing and will likely replace both of their consoles earlier than expected.

[Tarumon]

3DS 2013 will not disappoint.

MSFT has resources but it lacks just one thing. Taste. The last thing the world wants is showing off a MSFT product. They have tried:

1. Google > Bing
2. IPod > Zunes, iPhone> any Window phones, iPad >>Surface

Before the smart phones and tablets took offm and took off they did once they broke free from the shackles of the Wintel empire, remember there was this nascent thing called the internet? MSFT had a monopoly over virtually all desktops and laptops. They beat up Yahoo, they took out netscape, they bullied their way onto many turfs. But culturally, MSFT was not what people desired. They owned the gateway but people sought out Google as window to the world.

Today, just getting onto the internet, having access to video, voice chat, all that....you no longer need MSFT technology at the user end. So while MSFT may have the pieces in place to win over command central, I highly doubt the brand will reach and win over Apple devotees, and most likely the next black swan (previous black swans google, twitter, facebook, etc).

General Motors was at one point the biggest car company but buyers associated German cars with quality, Italian cars with flare, Japn cars with reliability and now Korean cars with Value. You had to call upon Made in USA to persuade people to buy GM. GE tried to come into every household but once it became household...it just couldnt win the elite and luxury lines. MSFT is simply too bleh, unchic, and overwhelmingly corporate Balmer, to have a chance at winning the war in taste. And Xbox is the closest thing they got that actually doesnt suck, and it only wins America.

I highly doubt somehow the company that has often imitated but never propelled each industry it invades, all of a sudden finds enough innovation to change the perception of MICROSOFT in the minds of generations of people.