Windows 8: Give Microsoft credit for betting the farm

It's not. If customers resist, if OEMs say we're having trouble selling units, if businesses, having just wrapped up their XP to Win7 conversion, pass or defer on Win8, Microsoft will offer downgrade rights. The money is the same. Microsoft will still be providing the operating system on over 80% of the new computers that will be sold over the next 40 months.

As far as mobile is concerned, Microsoft has far more upside than downside at the moment.

If there is credit to be applied, it's that they have decided that consumer computing is changing and Microsoft accepts it has to change with the times. Having been around awhile, I liken this to 1978 in pop music when 60s bands were caught in a cross-fire of punk and very successful disco/dance. Some merged well, such as the Rolling Stones, and some did financially well but critically poorly, think Elton John and Rod Stewart, and some disappeared because the times had passed them by. Indeed, Microsoft's strength is that their bet is not all-in at this time.

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