Best line in the article:

"Microsoft has still sold more Xbox 360 consoles than Sony to date"

Well, if you stay clear of hardware innovation like Nintendo, you wont have any problems :) lesson learned

Meh Vista still sucks, if you don't have 2 gigs it's unbearably slow.

I do like the zune especially when they were selling their 30 gig version for 80 bucks.

360 was badly built and you know that, only now are they officially fine. Regardless though they have the most games.

I ran it with 1gb on Vista 64, it ran fine for basic tasks but I upgraded the machine to a semi games machine so I needed another gig. Its noticeable but I wouldn't mind 1gb.

OT: Nvidia recently fucked up and got a 40% failure rate on their GPUs. What does this mean? RROD could have happened to Sony just as easily. Its not that Microsoft is a screw up, its just that either Sony is Lucky or Microsoft is Unlucky depending on how you spin it. (Nvidia is the supplier of GPUs to Sony btw) 

One of the main issues is likely the packaging/solder on the GPUs. They probably didn't forsee issues just as Nvidia (A GPU company FFS) didn't see an issue on lower powered laptop parts.  

really good read good find

:)

The astroturfers are out of the wood!
Couldn't expect less with that kind of article.

What's interesting about this article, is that it basically says that in trying to outdo Sony, they've outdone themselves too.

There are some LOL material in this article too :

"The future profits that the company once hoped for are now likely to wind up in Nintendo’s pockets."

And some excuses as usual:

"The terrifying part of the story is that this kind of problem — where technology fails and no one knows what to do about it — can happen to any company."

That is simply not true, like not true at all. MS is the only company that get excuses as stupid as these and get away with it.

Also, MS didn't sold through 9 millions XB360 at end of 2006.

Nvidia's GPU troubles are mainly concentrated with the 9600/9800 Chipset on the Desktop end and 8400/8600 Chipset on the notebook end.
The PS3 uses a souped up 79xx chipset which has a proven record.
People are pissed off with Vista because MS is forcing people to use the OS, ever tried asking Dell, HP etc. for XP on your Laptop/Desktop ?? HP will flatly refuse and Dell will try to make a quick buck on the downgrade.
Vista runs great on any system with 2-4 GB of Ram and a decent video card to boot, Nvidia 6600 Gt onwards and Ati Radeon 1300 onwards.
But it is a mess on lap tops with integrated video solutions.
Even with 1GB of Ram a Vista is going to test one's patience.
The Shutdown and Startup time is another issue, ever noticed why the default shutdown in vista is going to put your PC into hibernate.

The Xbox 360 on Paper is a great product, but it has some issues when it comes to the stability of its hardware. Nintendo had similar issues when it released the NES in the 1980's. Nintendo recalled every NES from the market fixed the problem and sent it back to the shops.
What does MS do ?? they continue to sell the faulty 360's and stuff the channel with the same. Their rrod replacements are no better. MS knows they are selling you a faulty system, they know the replacement they have given you for the rrod system will break down.
MS should Fix the mess they have created before buying xbox 360 exclusives titles.

A little harsh - the following is better I think:

Vistas = too high specs at launch for OS and too much old code still buried in it plus rubbish drivers support at launch

Zune = pretty good now but minimal marketshare penetration

360 = good console marred by design faults due to rush to market with good library of games and good online

Office = stop already!  99% of people want a basic word processor.  Stop trying to milk these products you're not adding anything worthwhile create new useful apps or make Office faster, etc. but stop with the useless tweaking to justify another Office release.

MS aren't that bad - but I think they've struggled as they move to diversiy (after all at the end of the day from abig perspective Zune, 360, etc. is a tiny part of the electronics/home media marketplace, and MS are always going to be dwarfed by Sony, Apple, Panasonic, Samsung, etc.) and has found itself struggling with updating its OS and dealing with the fact that there is so much legacy in the code now.

MS is actually a very bad company, it has never innovated and always copy. But even that they can't do well, because actually :
Vista = bad copy of Mac OS X
Zune = bad copy of iPod
XB360 = bad copy of Playstation

Basically, their strategy revolves around "copy the leader", in everything they do.
Unfortunately, they're very bad at copying, as they don't understand what they are copying.
Also there's the second rule is "if you can't copy, steal it or destroy the author if he's isolated".
That's sad.

thats where ms went wrong trying to copy the original playstaion