exactly what I wanted to say but felt to lazy to do it... since gamers and finance seems to be two opposing force.... I was sure I would get dissed anyway

my 2 cents and a half (yeah you don't have the half :P )

if MS doesn't strong harm the hardware market they can say buy to their brand outside of the professional service business and that would be bad.... windows with PC/server software alone can't hold the line... because if private use shifts from MS it will to in the professional sector in the long run.... they need an eco system and the only way to have a maximum of control over quality is to produce at least partially your own hardware....

even google is doing hardware now... with google TV, motorola

I wouldn't be surprised if Blackberry gets eaten by MS or at least there patent bought out... then even maybe a capital venture with Nokia.... and who knows if the PC market tanks enough one of the constructor might be up for sale too....

people are tired to geek out... computer and tech has become really mass market... they want stuff easy to consume not choice (unfortunately)... they don't want 200 brands, they love unified all in one ecosystem... and MS has the highest ace in their pocket if they play it right... they still control x86 platform... the ARM market is still up for grabs and phone can be tilted if the reste is there and the quality and unity follows and is coherent between devices among a same ecosystem....

so yeah I don't see it happening... and if it does it will be the dark days.... cause I have no intention to buy into appel overpriced for nothing mentality.... and don't want the shitty android ecosystem.... I guess I'll go back to hardcore geeking with linux or maube something will come out and save us all lol :D

They made a lot off of Xbox 360, and nothing off the original. This gen is set to make them a lot of money. They are not going to sell off their master piece when it's going to bare fruit.

well I have a concentration in Financial market with my MBA.... the problem with a lot of investors is, they are mostly running numbers, with very little regard to the business itself (I summarize here of course) but that's how all those bubbles happen...
how many times have you seen a stock go up in a market you know very well and in your head it didn't make any sense because the product or service that specific company offer are not of good quality or something is obviously broken.... those things, numbers don't tell... especially in the dotcom universe or software....

So while I'm dead convince that a company like MS that want to stay in business in the mass market software and computer/tech world need to have hardware integration (a la apple) I'm not sure it is the feeling investors have... and they couldn't care less if it goes business only as long as the company is healthy and generates profit...

but looking at how well receive the restructuration has been.. I doubt they'll revert that and I'm sure it wouldn't be good to flip flop every month with restructuration as massive as those every quarter or so....

and one big element we are forgetting... Mister Bill Gates himself.... he is not only chairman of MS but he is the biggest stock holder with 7-10% of the shares (couldn't find a definitive number in the 2 minutes search I did)... so if 1% is relevant, what about him??? and I'm sure he has strong allies too...

Phil Harrison.

well put, looking at how much money they make off Xbox is quite shallow, it's all about product sequencing, MS needs to get into hardware market to stay up with Apple and Google, the old Xbox division is already gone, now it's part of Device and Entertainment division (or something like that), so Xbox is only part of their overall hardware strategy, as long as it helps them to accumulate knowledge and expertise in hardware market it will be worth it.

as for leadership it really difficult to say, there are probably some corporate politics involved, I don't think they would bring in a new guy from outside though, the company is not struggling in any serious ways and the restructure has been successful, so they should have no problem take care of themselves. What I want to see most from MS is probably also what they want most: a solid mobile platform on par with Apple and Google, I'm getting sick of having Apple and Samsung in my face everywhere I turn, lol.

I feel you I'm trying to unappleify my family... but damn it's hard....  worst part is it's always me that has to service all their device when there is a problem.... 99% of time it's directly an apple software problem.... yeah sure it works well out of the box... but damn they are way higher maintenance... than anything MS IMO... yeah you have the crash every now and then but that's it... if you don't fuck around you have no native issues out of nowhere.... 99% of the fuck ups on MS platforms are user related....

makes me laugh when people try to convince me apple is better... I have 3 MBP arround me an iPad and iPad mini owned by the fam and they upgrade on a normal schedule.... not once over the past decade plus have I seen any advantage over my platforms running on MS or linux software(for the old ones).... beside the shiny look and feel that is useless to me and certainly doesn't justify the price hike.... and while some of their in house software is excellent they also have or had some of the crapiest one ever (safari, old itune, quicktime (not bad but a pain), mail and their office suite equivalent are just plain shit)....

samsung it's another story, they annoy me lately but I don't hate them... they just have played their cards right, I haven't notice some obvious scam from them... they have quality issues like any hardware manufacturer on some of their product... but while I don't buy their phones I never felt violated (yeah I put my wallet in my back pocket) when I purchased one of their products after researching it extensively.... but we could use some competition.... cause it's annoying... true that...