• Why Microsoft Is Right, and Why Windows 8 Is Wrong
• Bill’s Strategy at the Old Microsoft
• Are PCs Dying?
• What Happens to Microsoft?
• What Happens to the Industry?
• From a Higher Vantage Point

Quotes of the Week
Upgrades

• “Google Now” Takes On Siri
• Intel’s New Leaders

Takeout Window

• Desktop OS Marketing Share
• Microsoft Stock Performance
• “Google Now” Comes to the iPhone and iPad: Look Out, Siri
• The Microsoft Surface RT
• Rupert’s Intellectual Damage

Ethermail
—

I recently found myself asking fellow panelists at an MIT Forum what would happen if Windows 8 just didn’t take off. There was a conversational pause, so I asked again. No takers. Perhaps it was because we were in Seattle, but no one wanted to talk about the elephant in the room.

It’s quite likely that Windows 8 will be a bomb. If no one buys it, then what? What will happen to Microsoft, and what will happen to the rest of the computer industry? This seems to me to be a critical strategic issue facing everyone involved. While there are currently online arguments about the level of sales, and why they are falling short, I haven’t seen the larger, much more important question raised regarding what happens if the whole thing just tanks.