Or Apple. Not very likely since Apple has such a close relationship with Intel but it would allow Apple to have complete control of their stack. The new CPUs from AMD do seem to be very competitive with Intel right now. Of course Apple could also decide to go after Microsoft full force. Now that they have the app store on the mac I could see them deciding to create a mac mini plus with a slot for a video card and a desktop speed HD. Price it at $399 or $499 and start really building market share not to mention increase the number of developers.
"This is similar to the fact that when WP7 was announced, iOS (then, iPhone OS 3.0) had not announced multitasking, nor had they announced that the original iPhone (2G) would not be supported at all, and the iPhone 3G would not support multitasking." But Android and WebOS did have multitasking. I just can not bring my self to praise Microsoft for copying IOS quickly. They had been in the Mobile space for years so there is no excuse for playing catch up. The fact that IOS came out and ate their lunch is reason enough for shame. The facts that IOS is now got features that WP7 now just trying to catch up to again is also a fail. This is a pigs ear.
It is sad that none of the other Smartphone OSs seem to multiask as well as WebOS. The card interface is actually very good. Gee so WP7 will someday be as good as IOS, Android, WebOS, and Symbian. Gee sign me up...... BTW Windows Mobile has had multitasking for a long time as well. Microsoft took it out of WP7 because? Maybe because IOS didn't do it and they wanted to copy IOS?
Actually my wife served a mission and I have gone on splits with the missionaries in my local ward and I have worked with our ward mission leader closely. I find it so interesting that you are so sure that you know more than I do. You arrogance is just outstanding. It is good that you feel that being nice to people is of value in it's own right. So do I. You have been feed half truths and believed them. Baptism by proxy is because we believe that all must be baptized to be saved. That being said the people that are being baptized by proxy we believe have the option to still reject it if they don't want it. You know that freewill thing. All this is a matter of faith and you free to not believe it but do not let people that are not members tell you what we believe. No one can ever force you to accept anything it is all up to the person. It is just that we feel that the idea that if someone never was taught this or ever had it presented to them in the proper way would be punished for that. But no to our teaching we are not just forcing people to do x or y. Like I said you are free to believe or not. You may be a very nice person in real life that just is rude on line for all I know but in this case you do not understand LDS teaching on the subject. Pre ordainment is an interesting one. It almost falls into the classic nature vs nature argument of human behavior or the very nature of free will. Are not some people pre ordained to get cancer just by genetics? Or to be smart or to be good singers? In the end it is like the discusion on freewill I had in my philosophy class in college. I simply said that we had freewill. The reason being is if we did not then I am predestined to believe that we do. If we do then I am correct. It is of no value to deal the option that we do not. Preordination is not something anyone really has to worry about since we do not know one is or is not preordained to do and each of us has the freewill to ignore what we could do. BTW as to the being lied to let me make this clear. I am a member of the church. I am also in the leadership of my ward aka a member of the ward counsel. I am also the Sunday School President which means that I am to safe guard that only correct principles are taught. So if you really think that there is lying going on then I would be one of them ones doing the lying. I will tell you that it is a challenge at times to make sure that some good meaning but misguided members do not teach the wrong things. Believe it or not most of the wrong things I have correct are some of the very things that you do not like.
It is odd that they keep coming back. Unless you live in a really super LDS area they tend to have to much area to come back every 3 months. It could happen because every three months you get in your new batch. If you live in Provo Utah well there is only so many people that are not members. It isn't anything formal but I do find it odd they keep coming back. The problem at this point is that you still insist on being rude and insulting. You keep using derogatory terms like Sheeple. At no time did I use any negative terms in reference to what you believe in or don't. The rest of your statements are at best generalizations. Many scientists are members of the LDS church as are many engineers and computer scientists. Intel, Micron, and several other large tech companies send recruiters to BYU. I could go on and try to explain that freedom of choice is a vital part of LDS theology but since you choose to keep using negative terms I know that it isn't worth the effort. I am sorry that you are annoyed at the once every three months knock. If I was in your area I would be happy to prevent it for you but I am not. Have a good day.
Actually Missionaries almost are never out knocking doors at dinner time. It would be odd for one to be there at dinner time. BTW the missionaries do not like to knock on doors and they are easy to deal with if you are not interested. Frankly I find the fear and annoyance with them odd since they it seems to be in large part fear. To not be bothered by them again it is simple. Answer the door and say this. Thank you but I am really not interested. They will mark your address as not interested and will not bother you again. Going door to door is the thing they hate to do the most. Just a good mannered no thank you is good enough. But if you don't open the door they will come back and if you are mean to them. Well that is just being mean for no good reason. Sorry if you feel that way about us as a whole. I would not classify my self as gullible or sheeple. I doubt that if you knew me you would feel that way about me as well. You see I am the guy that a friend from another church invited to a lecture on creationism because I was good at science. I was also the guy that stood up in the lecture during the QnA and told him where he was wrong.
There are also a few other groups like some Pentecostal groups that want women to be covered from ankel to neck and not cut their hair. The major difference in most religions is those that do not follow the suggested dress tend to be at worst shrugged at. Some more extreme church might shun or excommunicate people for it which I must say that I find really wrong as well. As far as I know no Christian church will stone you or put you in jail for wearing a mini skirt. If there is then they are wrong as well.
I know I will get really flamed for this but those groups you call Fundamentalist Mormons are not Fundamentalist at all. If anything they are actually really breaking several of the fundamentalist rules of the church. They are more radical offshoots of Mormonism. And yes I am a practicing Mormon so let the flames start.
Yes but look what it took, the nation was reduced to rubble. Had the western powers actually followed Wilson's plan for a just peace things might have been a lot better. At lest after WWII the US could force the issue.
Isn't freedom about getting to make you own choices? Is a woman that wants to go to an all women's college not free? Are their not other women's groups on Facebook?
The women asked for this I do not think that they are being forced to join this group. For all we know they could be talking about women's rights issues and do not want to have to deal with a bunch of closed minded Saudi men trying to shout them down.
I think you are making judgements based on your own bias. Remember you can not fee anyone you can only enslave them. Freedom is always their choice.
I don't think that WebOS is behind WP7. It is actually a really good OS and can multitask and has a lot of software and games for it. I would even go so far as to say it may have more good games than Android does. Which sucks since I have Android. WP7 doesn't even have Pandora and Angry Birds yet.
Actually it is very hard it goes by county, city, and state. Zip codes can span counties or overlap. Now instead of Amazon make the website a single person shop selling candles or tee shirts. Then you have the odd rules. In some states you have sales tax holidays for things like school supplies and clothing or hurricane supplies. Then you have the different rules on what gets taxed what. For instance in on place they decided to tax candy. What is candy? Well if it has flour in it then it isn't candy. So a twix bar is taxed at a different rate as a Babyruth! Some places have a rate of x on the first y amount and then it goes to z!
No it is just a disaster. If it was limited to the state it would be workable but the way that it stands is a mess. Maybe just a national 4% sales tax on mail order would be workable. Trust me your big look up table is one big honking mess.
I don't think it is too much over the top. Nokia has almost no market share in the US. The US currently the biggest single market in the world. China and India are growing quickly but they not there yet. I am talking about in amount of profit not volume. WP7 right now is a total fizzle. In the US Microsoft's home market they are on on carrier and have no real buzz going. I went to the AT&T store to see them. They where fast but no one seemed to care about them. I fear that Nokia using WP7 will do nothing good for both of them. For the current partners they see Nokia becoming an anointed partner. HTC, Samsung, and LG have already invested in Android as well as WP7. Now they are going to be in second place behind Nokia. Nokia now will have it's future tied to Microsoft who has a history failure in the mobile space. Over all I would say that Nokia may not be toast but they are in a world of hurt.
But Linux is very weak at power management. Symbian's real weakness is the UI and not the Kernel. Linux as a mobile OS sucks... Until you put a good UI on it. I am not an expert on Symbian but I have done a lot of Linux work and it really needs help in power management. Yes cellphones now have more resources that a VAX11/780 but that doesn't mean that you have resources to throw away.
They way that sales taxes are collected are really a pain for any online business. The sales tax varies not just state by state but even county by county. And for an online order where to you charge from? I work in one county and live in another. I if I buy something online at my office do they charge the sales tax of the place where I order or where it is delivered to? What about when I use my cell phone and I am on vacation and I buy an app or a song? Should it use the GPS and decide? If I buy a gift for my mother in law from Amazon should I pay Florida or Texas sales tax? Sales tax and online sales just don't work well. And if it is a pain for someone like Amazon which probably could deal with it but a nightmare for any small company trying to do business on the internet.
No the article is fine that is why I limited my wrath to the summary. You pointed out a list of things all of which where mammoth tasks to accomplish. My annoyance which I am sure is increased by my sensitivity to the subject is to idiot simplification of that task that the person that wrote the summary added. The actual article had none of that. I am willing to bet that no cancer researcher feels that the task still ahead of them is anything but massive. Way to many ignorant people feel the need to minimize a task of which they know nothing about and do not work on themselves. It doesn't really matter if it is some boss that asks "How hard can it be to write a new contact management system" or this person.
I am sure you are correct. That is why the title of my post was crappy summary as usual. Anyone educated and smart enough to be involved in this kind of work would probably be wise enough to make make such a stupid statement in writing.
"It's unlikely to evolve any new defense mechanisms, meaning curing cancer might be not quite as mammoth a task as commonly thought." Gee since I just lost my mother to cancer last month and have lost way to many friends to it I have to say that this is the STUPIDEST, MOST ARROGANT statement I have read in a very long time. How long have we been trying to cure and prevent cancer? We have made a lot of progress to be sure but the task and effort passed mammoth decades ago. I welcome any news about improved treatment but really people let's not make light of the subject or the effort. It reminds me of every clueless idiot that takes a look at a task that they can not do and say, "How hard can it be?" And to those that are making jokes and or political comments about this. Well I hope you don't ever have to understand the things that I have learned about cancer over the last few years.
Wow that is shocking. So in just a few years Smartphones went from a tiny percentage of the market to a huge percentage of the market? And this is shocking? I mean this is like the big news is how fast they are growing not that they are that small for a percentage. Yes a lot of people do not need smartphones but then a lot of people didn't need cell phones. My guess is that if you keep watching the percentage will keep growing. Right now you can get smartphones for free. This weekend at Tmobile you can get any smartphone for free. The data plans are the killer but that may also change. And to all the people that don't want or like smartphones. Well that is your choice. My 78 year old stepfather agrees with you. He just wants to make calls. I on the other hand enjoy my EVO. but then he also didn't see why anyone would want a computer at home and then why anyone would want the internet.
Really? I listen to these Podcasts, Buzz out loud, Engadget, Engadget Mobile, Dialed in, Tech News Today, and Floss weekly. I read Arstechnica, Anandtech, Slashdot, Engadget, and several other websites. But why you say I know nothing you provide no answers? So let me restate my questions to you? Does it have seamless integration with exchange? Better than or equal to Blackberry? Does it have seamless integration with Hotmail? As good as Gmail is integrated with Android? Voice commands as good as Android? Hey they seem to work really well with sync which is a Microsoft product. What about Evernote and Dropbox? Pandora? What about bar code readers?
I have not seen any official call for Manning to face the death penalty. But if Manning did leak those documents and he says he didn't so let us not declare him guilty then he is guilty of violating his oath and disobeying legal orders. No one seriously thinks he will get the death penalty.
"It would not really be a PC... it would be a Microsoft box with a console form factor which can function as console, PC and mediacenter." But why? The 360 is a Mediacenter and a console. Why add in the extra cost of making it a PC as well and loose the extra income from a separate PC sale? Add in that Microsoft can not make their own PC because they would then compete with all their partners. Steam does make money for Microsoft because it runs on PCs and Windows. I agree that not doing better with Live on the PC was a huge mistake on Windows part and that could have been Microsoft's answer too steam. But none that that has anything to do with Microsoft really had to push into Consoles and Mobile. PCs are becoming more and more of a commodity. The margins are shrinking and more and more of the time people spend on PC is spent on the Web. Here is a good case study. I work at a software firm that develops software that runs on Windows. We started to work on an iPad application so we got some Macs in the office. Our founder started to use a Mac. He is now completely converted to the Mac. He discovered that outside of Office the only things he used where web based and OS/X works just fine for him. That is what Microsoft fears the most. Not just OS/X but now HP is going to start putting WebOS on desktops and notebooks. Microsoft needed and still needs to have a strong product in the Mobile space. They already have the dominate position on PCs and pushing gaming isn't going to help PCs stay at the top of the heap. Smartphones have now out sold PC for the first time and Microsoft is a total also ran in that market.
Normal people do not hook up PCs to TVs. Also who would want hardware DRM on a PC? Wow that flames that would cause would be huge. So what you want is a PC that has Hardware DRM and hooks to a TV? That is a console. PC Gaming will not save the PC and I would say the lack luster sales of the PS3 in the US show that price is a big obstacle since the Wii and the 360 both out sold it even before the Kinect. Just about the only "game" I really play is PC only. I am a big FSX fan. I just do not see that coming to consoles. But as I have pointed out gaming on the PC is a niche market and as you pointed out more and more computing is moving to mobile, Microsoft had to get in to both consoles and mobile and is failing at mobile.
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Or Apple. Not very likely since Apple has such a close relationship with Intel but it would allow Apple to have complete control of their stack. The new CPUs from AMD do seem to be very competitive with Intel right now.
Of course Apple could also decide to go after Microsoft full force. Now that they have the app store on the mac I could see them deciding to create a mac mini plus with a slot for a video card and a desktop speed HD. Price it at $399 or $499 and start really building market share not to mention increase the number of developers.
"This is similar to the fact that when WP7 was announced, iOS (then, iPhone OS 3.0) had not announced multitasking, nor had they announced that the original iPhone (2G) would not be supported at all, and the iPhone 3G would not support multitasking."
But Android and WebOS did have multitasking.
I just can not bring my self to praise Microsoft for copying IOS quickly. They had been in the Mobile space for years so there is no excuse for playing catch up. The fact that IOS came out and ate their lunch is reason enough for shame. The facts that IOS is now got features that WP7 now just trying to catch up to again is also a fail.
This is a pigs ear.
It is sad that none of the other Smartphone OSs seem to multiask as well as WebOS. The card interface is actually very good.
Gee so WP7 will someday be as good as IOS, Android, WebOS, and Symbian. Gee sign me up......
BTW Windows Mobile has had multitasking for a long time as well. Microsoft took it out of WP7 because? Maybe because IOS didn't do it and they wanted to copy IOS?
Actually my wife served a mission and I have gone on splits with the missionaries in my local ward and I have worked with our ward mission leader closely.
I find it so interesting that you are so sure that you know more than I do. You arrogance is just outstanding. It is good that you feel that being nice to people is of value in it's own right. So do I.
You have been feed half truths and believed them. Baptism by proxy is because we believe that all must be baptized to be saved. That being said the people that are being baptized by proxy we believe have the option to still reject it if they don't want it. You know that freewill thing.
All this is a matter of faith and you free to not believe it but do not let people that are not members tell you what we believe.
No one can ever force you to accept anything it is all up to the person. It is just that we feel that the idea that if someone never was taught this or ever had it presented to them in the proper way would be punished for that. But no to our teaching we are not just forcing people to do x or y.
Like I said you are free to believe or not. You may be a very nice person in real life that just is rude on line for all I know but in this case you do not understand LDS teaching on the subject.
Pre ordainment is an interesting one. It almost falls into the classic nature vs nature argument of human behavior or the very nature of free will. Are not some people pre ordained to get cancer just by genetics? Or to be smart or to be good singers? In the end it is like the discusion on freewill I had in my philosophy class in college. I simply said that we had freewill. The reason being is if we did not then I am predestined to believe that we do. If we do then I am correct. It is of no value to deal the option that we do not. Preordination is not something anyone really has to worry about since we do not know one is or is not preordained to do and each of us has the freewill to ignore what we could do.
BTW as to the being lied to let me make this clear. I am a member of the church. I am also in the leadership of my ward aka a member of the ward counsel. I am also the Sunday School President which means that I am to safe guard that only correct principles are taught. So if you really think that there is lying going on then I would be one of them ones doing the lying. I will tell you that it is a challenge at times to make sure that some good meaning but misguided members do not teach the wrong things. Believe it or not most of the wrong things I have correct are some of the very things that you do not like.
It is odd that they keep coming back. Unless you live in a really super LDS area they tend to have to much area to come back every 3 months. It could happen because every three months you get in your new batch. If you live in Provo Utah well there is only so many people that are not members. It isn't anything formal but I do find it odd they keep coming back.
The problem at this point is that you still insist on being rude and insulting. You keep using derogatory terms like Sheeple. At no time did I use any negative terms in reference to what you believe in or don't. The rest of your statements are at best generalizations. Many scientists are members of the LDS church as are many engineers and computer scientists. Intel, Micron, and several other large tech companies send recruiters to BYU. I could go on and try to explain that freedom of choice is a vital part of LDS theology but since you choose to keep using negative terms I know that it isn't worth the effort.
I am sorry that you are annoyed at the once every three months knock. If I was in your area I would be happy to prevent it for you but I am not.
Have a good day.
Actually Missionaries almost are never out knocking doors at dinner time. It would be odd for one to be there at dinner time. BTW the missionaries do not like to knock on doors and they are easy to deal with if you are not interested. Frankly I find the fear and annoyance with them odd since they it seems to be in large part fear.
To not be bothered by them again it is simple. Answer the door and say this. Thank you but I am really not interested. They will mark your address as not interested and will not bother you again. Going door to door is the thing they hate to do the most. Just a good mannered no thank you is good enough. But if you don't open the door they will come back and if you are mean to them. Well that is just being mean for no good reason.
Sorry if you feel that way about us as a whole. I would not classify my self as gullible or sheeple. I doubt that if you knew me you would feel that way about me as well. You see I am the guy that a friend from another church invited to a lecture on creationism because I was good at science. I was also the guy that stood up in the lecture during the QnA and told him where he was wrong.
There are also a few other groups like some Pentecostal groups that want women to be covered from ankel to neck and not cut their hair. The major difference in most religions is those that do not follow the suggested dress tend to be at worst shrugged at. Some more extreme church might shun or excommunicate people for it which I must say that I find really wrong as well. As far as I know no Christian church will stone you or put you in jail for wearing a mini skirt. If there is then they are wrong as well.
I know I will get really flamed for this but those groups you call Fundamentalist Mormons are not Fundamentalist at all. If anything they are actually really breaking several of the fundamentalist rules of the church. They are more radical offshoots of Mormonism.
And yes I am a practicing Mormon so let the flames start.
Yes but look what it took, the nation was reduced to rubble. Had the western powers actually followed Wilson's plan for a just peace things might have been a lot better. At lest after WWII the US could force the issue.
Isn't freedom about getting to make you own choices?
Is a woman that wants to go to an all women's college not free?
Are their not other women's groups on Facebook?
The women asked for this I do not think that they are being forced to join this group. For all we know they could be talking about women's rights issues and do not want to have to deal with a bunch of closed minded Saudi men trying to shout them down.
I think you are making judgements based on your own bias.
Remember you can not fee anyone you can only enslave them. Freedom is always their choice.
I don't think that WebOS is behind WP7. It is actually a really good OS and can multitask and has a lot of software and games for it. I would even go so far as to say it may have more good games than Android does. Which sucks since I have Android.
WP7 doesn't even have Pandora and Angry Birds yet.
Actually it is very hard it goes by county, city, and state. Zip codes can span counties or overlap. Now instead of Amazon make the website a single person shop selling candles or tee shirts. Then you have the odd rules. In some states you have sales tax holidays for things like school supplies and clothing or hurricane supplies. Then you have the different rules on what gets taxed what. For instance in on place they decided to tax candy. What is candy? Well if it has flour in it then it isn't candy. So a twix bar is taxed at a different rate as a Babyruth! Some places have a rate of x on the first y amount and then it goes to z!
No it is just a disaster. If it was limited to the state it would be workable but the way that it stands is a mess. Maybe just a national 4% sales tax on mail order would be workable. Trust me your big look up table is one big honking mess.
I don't think it is too much over the top.
Nokia has almost no market share in the US. The US currently the biggest single market in the world. China and India are growing quickly but they not there yet. I am talking about in amount of profit not volume.
WP7 right now is a total fizzle. In the US Microsoft's home market they are on on carrier and have no real buzz going. I went to the AT&T store to see them. They where fast but no one seemed to care about them. I fear that Nokia using WP7 will do nothing good for both of them.
For the current partners they see Nokia becoming an anointed partner. HTC, Samsung, and LG have already invested in Android as well as WP7. Now they are going to be in second place behind Nokia. Nokia now will have it's future tied to Microsoft who has a history failure in the mobile space.
Over all I would say that Nokia may not be toast but they are in a world of hurt.
But Linux is very weak at power management. Symbian's real weakness is the UI and not the Kernel.
Linux as a mobile OS sucks... Until you put a good UI on it. I am not an expert on Symbian but I have done a lot of Linux work and it really needs help in power management. Yes cellphones now have more resources that a VAX11/780 but that doesn't mean that you have resources to throw away.
thanks for clearing that up. Way too many people think it is an easy solution.
Oregon, Montana, New Hampshire and, Delaware will love that idea.
They way that sales taxes are collected are really a pain for any online business.
The sales tax varies not just state by state but even county by county. And for an online order where to you charge from? I work in one county and live in another. I if I buy something online at my office do they charge the sales tax of the place where I order or where it is delivered to?
What about when I use my cell phone and I am on vacation and I buy an app or a song?
Should it use the GPS and decide?
If I buy a gift for my mother in law from Amazon should I pay Florida or Texas sales tax?
Sales tax and online sales just don't work well. And if it is a pain for someone like Amazon which probably could deal with it but a nightmare for any small company trying to do business on the internet.
No the article is fine that is why I limited my wrath to the summary. You pointed out a list of things all of which where mammoth tasks to accomplish.
My annoyance which I am sure is increased by my sensitivity to the subject is to idiot simplification of that task that the person that wrote the summary added. The actual article had none of that. I am willing to bet that no cancer researcher feels that the task still ahead of them is anything but massive.
Way to many ignorant people feel the need to minimize a task of which they know nothing about and do not work on themselves. It doesn't really matter if it is some boss that asks "How hard can it be to write a new contact management system" or this person.
I am sure you are correct. That is why the title of my post was crappy summary as usual. Anyone educated and smart enough to be involved in this kind of work would probably be wise enough to make make such a stupid statement in writing.
You are a mindless jerk.
"It's unlikely to evolve any new defense mechanisms, meaning curing cancer might be not quite as mammoth a task as commonly thought."
Gee since I just lost my mother to cancer last month and have lost way to many friends to it I have to say that this is the STUPIDEST, MOST ARROGANT statement I have read in a very long time.
How long have we been trying to cure and prevent cancer? We have made a lot of progress to be sure but the task and effort passed mammoth decades ago.
I welcome any news about improved treatment but really people let's not make light of the subject or the effort.
It reminds me of every clueless idiot that takes a look at a task that they can not do and say, "How hard can it be?"
And to those that are making jokes and or political comments about this. Well I hope you don't ever have to understand the things that I have learned about cancer over the last few years.
Wow that is shocking. So in just a few years Smartphones went from a tiny percentage of the market to a huge percentage of the market? And this is shocking? I mean this is like the big news is how fast they are growing not that they are that small for a percentage. Yes a lot of people do not need smartphones but then a lot of people didn't need cell phones.
My guess is that if you keep watching the percentage will keep growing. Right now you can get smartphones for free. This weekend at Tmobile you can get any smartphone for free. The data plans are the killer but that may also change. And to all the people that don't want or like smartphones. Well that is your choice. My 78 year old stepfather agrees with you. He just wants to make calls. I on the other hand enjoy my EVO.
but then he also didn't see why anyone would want a computer at home and then why anyone would want the internet.
Really?
I listen to these Podcasts, Buzz out loud, Engadget, Engadget Mobile, Dialed in, Tech News Today, and Floss weekly.
I read Arstechnica, Anandtech, Slashdot, Engadget, and several other websites.
But why you say I know nothing you provide no answers?
So let me restate my questions to you?
Does it have seamless integration with exchange? Better than or equal to Blackberry?
Does it have seamless integration with Hotmail? As good as Gmail is integrated with Android?
Voice commands as good as Android? Hey they seem to work really well with sync which is a Microsoft product.
What about Evernote and Dropbox? Pandora?
What about bar code readers?
Do you know?
I have not seen any official call for Manning to face the death penalty. But if Manning did leak those documents and he says he didn't so let us not declare him guilty then he is guilty of violating his oath and disobeying legal orders. No one seriously thinks he will get the death penalty.
"It would not really be a PC ... it would be a Microsoft box with a console form factor which can function as console, PC and mediacenter."
But why? The 360 is a Mediacenter and a console. Why add in the extra cost of making it a PC as well and loose the extra income from a separate PC sale? Add in that Microsoft can not make their own PC because they would then compete with all their partners. Steam does make money for Microsoft because it runs on PCs and Windows. I agree that not doing better with Live on the PC was a huge mistake on Windows part and that could have been Microsoft's answer too steam.
But none that that has anything to do with Microsoft really had to push into Consoles and Mobile. PCs are becoming more and more of a commodity. The margins are shrinking and more and more of the time people spend on PC is spent on the Web.
Here is a good case study. I work at a software firm that develops software that runs on Windows. We started to work on an iPad application so we got some Macs in the office. Our founder started to use a Mac. He is now completely converted to the Mac. He discovered that outside of Office the only things he used where web based and OS/X works just fine for him.
That is what Microsoft fears the most. Not just OS/X but now HP is going to start putting WebOS on desktops and notebooks.
Microsoft needed and still needs to have a strong product in the Mobile space. They already have the dominate position on PCs and pushing gaming isn't going to help PCs stay at the top of the heap. Smartphones have now out sold PC for the first time and Microsoft is a total also ran in that market.
Normal people do not hook up PCs to TVs.
Also who would want hardware DRM on a PC? Wow that flames that would cause would be huge.
So what you want is a PC that has Hardware DRM and hooks to a TV? That is a console. PC Gaming will not save the PC and I would say the lack luster sales of the PS3 in the US show that price is a big obstacle since the Wii and the 360 both out sold it even before the Kinect.
Just about the only "game" I really play is PC only. I am a big FSX fan. I just do not see that coming to consoles. But as I have pointed out gaming on the PC is a niche market and as you pointed out more and more computing is moving to mobile, Microsoft had to get in to both consoles and mobile and is failing at mobile.