No, please, don't force me to read 9 pages of discussions just to understand how the topic turned from "what's behind Microsoft's fall from dominance" and "the right to play back a DVD should be included when buy the DVD and playback should not be restrictred by software patents". It would be overkill ;-)
Anyway, back to original topic, I don't think there's a fall from dominance by Microsoft. It just happens that a NEW market, different than PC ones, has born in the meanwhile, and Microsoft didn't pay enough attention to its future relevance. Result is that Microsoft is still absolutely dominant in the PC *and* server market, although in the new, different MOBILE market its competition to Google and Apple has just begun. I wouldn't underestimate Microsoft here, though: I already know some people switching from iOS to Android to Windows Phone, and all of them agree the last one is the stablest among the three. This trend may diffuse if vendors of Android phones won't stop kidding with customers and decide to upgrade their products in a better way. Microsoft also bought Nokia, which in the past was the best seller competitor in the cellphone market, so they have all the know-how they need to succeed again. In a nutshell: Microsoft's fortunes might have been built on questionable marketing behaviors in the past, but they had many success stories and made many mistakes to learn from. I wouldn't bet Google and Apple share the same valuable experiences, even if they had a glorious histery behind them.
All in all, we're still at the beginning of a new era, and it's good to see all that competition that was just driven out from the computer market long ago. It will bring customers better products after all.
