Office was last revised in 2007. The latest version – Office 14 – is due soon (probably next year). They've revised it on a pretty regular schedule since it was announced. I'm not sure where you get that they haven't been updating it.

As to your history: read up on Apple. Apple is an *awesome* marketer, but they are far more proprietary than Microsoft, far more controlling and far more "big brother". They stole/borrowed/copied/whatever the original Mac design from Xerox, just like Microsoft and many others did. They "built an empire" on technology from Commodore/MOS and eventually marketed them under a bus. Until the Mac, their products were inferior to many other offerings, and often 5-10x as expensive. They had great marketing, though, and did a good job getting schools to agree to use their stuff at a huge discount. Apple's no saint and they did more than just 'dumb things'

That all said, I love my Zune, hate that there are no accessories, but otherwise agree that it just doesn't have the cool factor required to get teens to buy it. Everyone I know who has a zune is in technology, is highly educated, and is typicall over 30. IOW people who have needs other than just having the cool thing. Of course, many of them also have iPhones so I guess they aren't perfect ;)

They are winning the console wars in the US because of a pricing error by Sony, not because of a superior product. Follow the timeline back a bit further and you'll realize that this company took someone else's idea for a GUI-based OS and built a goliath enterprise upon a rickety mountain of DOS.

Their focus on rigidly proprietary applications and shady business tactics has hurt them in more ways than even they see. The fact that their market share continues to erode as personal and business electronics move away from the desktop and towards smaller devices and the cloud hasn't really hit them the way it should. Why? Because they still have a juggernaut market share and decades worth of legacy business to soften the blow. They are so self-concious when they pursue new ideas because culturally it just isn't part of the company's DNA. Anyone remember Surface?

Apple has done lots of dumb things themselves in the past, but those decisions are culturally used as learning experiences. Failed products contribute ideas to successful ones. There is simply no way that anyone can claim the iPod and iPhone aren't wildly successful at least in part because of the masterfully democratic design of iTunes and the App Store. That's foresight into the content distribution marketplace — and learning from experience. To think that it all started with some off-the-shelf hardware they wanted to unload.

I recently set up a major Press Day event at CES for a client and I actually used – gasp – Keynote, not PPT. The fact that they haven't continued to significantly refine their star Office products speaks volumes about Microsoft.

I'm a big fan of competition, so I hope that Microsoft makes some serious changes before it's too late once again. Starting with their R&D lifecycle. I personally think that Apple's is too fast, but Microsoft is plodding along slower than ever. They missed the first ship that sailed in the mobile devices market. Windows Mobile was a cruel joke and I was certainly one of the guinea pigs. Let's see if they can't get it together for the next generation of smart phones.

As far as incorporating the Zune competently into other devices… I'll believe it when I see it.

For the hardware/software itself, I feel its better than the ipod…the only people that have negative things to say have probably never had one, or have only used it for brief periods of time.

ex: the "track ball" scrolling feature is far superior to the circle scroll on the ipod.

I would be very disappointed to see it go away. I am looking forward to future versions and added features.

MSN suddenly dropped their Music platform a couple of years ago, got more cold feet in their commitments to buy Yahoo, and that the first version of Zune was not reported on well.

The second version of Zune got good reviews but the Z2K leap year bug was an amazing oversight and disgrace and held back my purchase of the Zune. One has to wonder what other bugs they haven't checked for.

I don't know if Microsoft is really comitted to the Zune. That leaves Creative Lab's Zen more attractive. Especially since it doesn't bind one to a music platform and music service as Apple's iPod and MS's Zune does.

I'm keeping my eye on the Zen unless Microsoft really commits themselves and take control of the Zune.

Mind you. I still like Apple's iPod but they can do better pirce and feature wise; and I don't like virtual monopolies.