To be fair, microsoft did kinect, a computer vision product that is in millions of hoees. It wouldn't be hard for google or apple to this but they haven't for some reason.

The problem with microsoft has been that is ran it's research wing separate from the business, while google runs research like a business http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2012/7/151226-googles-hybrid-a...

A full shift to the realization that machine learning isn't research and should actually be the majority of what everyone does hasn't sunk in it. The question not be "where can we apply machine learning" but instead "where should machine learning not be applied". This type of thinking should occur even down to the individual person (quantified self) http://quantifiedself.com/ .