You hit the nail on the head about Windows and Office. I think Microsoft could bank (and has to an extent) on customers flocking to its services if they could work on delivering specifics instead of, what seems like for the last decade, just reactions. There are a lot of purchasing managers and CIOs that know that if MS puts out a product in the enterprise space it's at least a safe bet. But they lose that as the enterprise blurs into the realm of the personal and MS makes larger bets into the personal space.

Microsoft's problem is that while Windows and Office give MS the freedom to explore new markets those same two things let them treat these new markets as nothing more than multi-billion dollar whims that ultimately leave customers gun shy. I'm probably one of the last ten or so people that still has a Zune subscription (because the price and software are really compelling) but I also know that if they shut the entire thing down tomorrow and told all their Zune customers to go pound sand it wouldn't make a single penny's worth of difference on the Earnings Per Share report at the next quarterly earnings conference call.

But while you say that Windows Phone was a wake up call it doesn't seem like it from the outside. When Apple announces things they give dates and prices, Microsoft announces things like the Lumia line, which look great, but they lose when they fail to deliver specifics instead just relying on everybody knowing that anything the demo will be available in the next 6-18 months.

MS may have finally turned a corner by not releasing a half baked tablet OS in an effort to fight for the number 2 spot in the tablet wars, they waited until their "perspective" on tablet usage was ready. But still, they failed to outline specific dates and prices until relatively recently. People will "flock" to commitments to specifics, not so much so to "oh, shit if we don't find a MS response to threat X it's going to be bad".