You say that there are formidable competitors. Apple is certainly doing fine recently. But much of it is related to the success of the iPod. I seriously doubt that they can compete with Microsoft in the OS market as long as they bundle Mac OS with hardware. And if Steve Jobs fires all his designers, and hires some usability experts from Microsoft instead, there would be a good chance that Apple could be a real competitor for MS. As to Linux, it could be that this OS has already seen its best times. The fact that they lose market shares to Windows even before Windows Server 2008 comes out isn’t a good sign. As long as OSS programmers don’t focus on usability first and on technology second, they will never be able to catch up with MS.

Some comments though…

Revenue growth is only a positive sign for MS, shareholders, and fanboys. Consider that they released a number of different versions of Vista, some with jacked up prices, so yes you will find greater revenue growth.

As for blaming competitors I agree. Over the years alot of tech companies have been pretty volatile unless they settled into a niche like Adobe. Not many had good vision and execution. MS is guilty of this as well however they got so entrenched early on they can make mistakes as well as vapor announcements to detract others so that not many can get the upperhand.

While there are some good things that come out of MS, much of what they do is truly crap like a kid trying to use a magic marker over the top of a bad crayon drawing. If all things were equal now, I can’t see MS being dominant by any means. The planets being lined up like they were back in the day and being able to use IBM just isn’t going to happen now. Many view MS as the current IBM in terms of influence. 5-10 yrs ago I would agree. These days it’s Google. Maybe someone can use them to vault to the top but I don’t see it happening anytime soon.

Some feel Apple could do challenge MS and maybe they will. Some feel Linux could do challenge MS and maybe they will. The thing I remind myself is so what? The market will speak even if they are heavily influenced. The market wants to see good execution. MS used to provide that. Right now, Apple and Google might be the only two big ones that are executing pretty well.

Most thought Apple didn’t have a chance but look at the last few years and see that they’ve mounted an incredible turn-around that truthfully doesn’t show signs of stopping anytime soon. While they are focusing on different markets, it doesn’t mean that they won’t or don’t impact the same markets.

Linux is what it is. The number one thing about Linux isn’t that they focus on open source but that it’s “free”. Of course many businesses are finding out that it’s not truly free.

No matter though Apple and the Linux community are formidable competitors for MS in the OS realm. Again though just as before MS is so entrenched that either of those two aren’t going to make much more of a dent than they already have. Apple knows this…the Linux community, well, some might, some might not. It will take time before we see if either can.

MS isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. They’re too entrenched and too big. Maybe it will take governments to address it but honestly I think MS will eventually undo themselves as they grow too big to manage. It’ll be up to others like Apple, Redhat, etc. to be ready and execute. Execution will be critical.