I think consumers have a bit of tech fatigue. Consumers in the phone and tablet market are already invested with either iOS or android and they continue to upgrade the quality of the experience I dont think Windows 8 does anything that much better to get the majority of consumers interested enough to learn the new Win8 OS.

I think if the laptop and desktop market users upgrade and like the system with their next purchase the might go with a Win8 device but this process may take a very long time, especially with the desktop and laptop market shrinking.

A doom MS article? Those are pretty rare.

so fanboys wars say Sony and Microsoft are better than Nintendo. Well at least the fanboys can save Nintendo if they want to, but Sony and Microsoft are too big that the gaming section can't withstand a hit like that. Just don't be a fanboy, fanboys live on lies, look at Playstation and XBOX fanboys fighting about which one is better, the true is non of them is in better position that the only-gaming-small Japanese company.

haha! in the context of what's going on in these forums and the internet in general console war wise of late, that is quite true.

Do you guys really ever tire of hearing your own bullsh*t?  I remember five years ago when laptops were supposed to overtake desktops and guess what, desktops are still here and they are not going anywhere.  Tablets will never take over laptops because they are not nearly as functional as a laptop.  Sure they are fun to surf on and to do minimal work but there will always be a place for laptops.  Tablets will not replace desktops and MS did not see them as a threat to the PC but as an added stream of income.  Apple's luster is beginning to diminish and Android's brand is getting stronger.  Apple has more to lose than MS.

MS isn't going anywhere anytime soon. As a developer who knows many other developers, we'll be damned if we have to use Apple products for work. I do love my iPhone though.

Are Sony fans latching onto Apple to hate on MS financially?

That "20% market share" number is most probably a quote from that Goldman Sachs/IDC study from early December.

http://seattletimes.com/html/microsoftpri0/2019853243_goldman_sachs_microsoft_os_has_gone_from_more_than.html

Goldman Sachs / IDC decided that being 2012, it's getting more and more inappropriate/unrealistic to consider desktop PCs as the only relevant type of computing device. So they decided that from now on, they don't exclusively look at desktop PCs to judge market share, but also smartphones, tablets etc.

So instead of exclusively looking at numbers that still look favourable for Microsoft, these evil Microsoft-haters at IDC / Goldman Sachs decided to adopt their criteria to real-world scenarios.

Seriously: The article may be very exaggerated, but the general consensus is right. Their golden age is over, Microsoft is in slow decline and trouble. They key to Microsoft's success has always been the power that came with being able to early establish a monopoly in the desktop OS segment. Their desktop OS monopoly helped them establish an Office Suite monopoly as well, and now I have already mentioned the only two products that Microsoft is extremely successful with. These two product are Microsoft's cash cows; responsible for the majority of Microsoft's profits. The customers simply didn't have any realistic alternatives. But with desktop PCs slowly but constantly becoming redundant, so is Microsoft. When customers actually have a choice, most don't pick the overpriced proprietary Microsoft product,

Where the article is completely wrong however is when it comes to the speed of that process. It's going to be slower, Microsoft will not set half their employees off in the next two or three years!

You can't claim he's exagerrating then say the general consensus is right when is entire reasoning is based on figures that are incorrect.  You cannot compare a market share figure falling from 95% to 20% when the content being measured is different, it's ridiculous.  If you have the current equivalent figure or the old figures encapsulating smartphone and tablets included then you can start to make some analysis.  This is quite literally an analysis based on his feeling not actual fact.  Whether he is right in some of his conlusions is irrelevant if the process he got to get there is completely bonkers.  The article is a joke and shouldn't in any way be taken as a serious analysis of the market situation. 

Microsoft have never had a strong presence in the tablet or phone sector so the only thing they're a victim of is declining PC sales as they're not losing out to anyone else really in the desktop OS sector.  It's a bit early to be putting the boot into surface until it's had a good year in the market to establish itself as a valid alternative to Apple and Android devices.