Microsoft disbands the Band: fitness device pulled from stores, no Band 3

I'd argue that their Surface line seems to be going on quite well - in fact, its been inspiring a lot of copycats itself (e.g. Elite X2, Asus Transformer Book, IdeaPad Miix)

They've all failed in one way or the other, but "copycat, throw money efforts with no originality or differentiation" doesn't seem like a fair description. They just consistently fail to make enough progress from their initial offerings or fix miss-positioning, loose all momentum as a result and then are cancelled... which is kind of sad, since there are a lot of good ideas.

What about the xbox? Its done pretty well.

Microsoft consumer devices and peripherals historically actually did pretty darn well. For the longest time they were the gold standard for keyboards, mice and gaming peripherals. They were one of the first ones (as far as big companies go) to launch a dedicated gaming line (Sidewinder).

Same goes for headsets, webcams and even weird things like the ActiMate toy line, I never found MSFT devices to be "lightweight" as far as execution goes, they tend to innovate and produce really good things including being often first to the market and a head of their time to some extent.

The biggest problem I've seen with Microsoft is lack of commitment and follow through, and for some reason they can't generate the same level of hype even when producing a superior product.