Apple had issues before the iPhone 5 release. People wanted to wait for the release, so sales slowed down. Same with Windows 8. It would be stupid to buy just before this release.

This is becoming a trend in the IT world not just for microsoft. I work for a it company and go back 10 years ago we were setting up around 5 to 10 new pcs a day for our customers and had around 2 server installs a month and if you look at this year we have dorecessionver installs so far this year amd around 5 or 6 pc installs a month. Even Dell and HP are offering 5 year support on there hardware now as they know every company is trying to save money.

Looking at what microsoft are about to do with Windows 8 windows phone 8 xbox office 365 server os ect they are making a big change to how it all works and i think this will work well for them over tbe next 5 to 10 years as the world starts to recover from the resision.

On tne other side of the coin more and more people at home are buying mobile devices to replace there laptops for web browsing and i think this is where microsoftwill be able to become a big player in the market as at the moment if you have an ipad or android tablet you still need a laptop or desktop to carry out some day to day tasks like use office or print. PDF files browse usb pens or harddrives, copy music and videos to phones and mp3 players and more. Where a windows 8 tablet will let you do all of this so it replaces the ipad and laptop in one go.

For this to worl though micrlslft really need to push there hardware amd software like they have never done before because just like people think to google it for web search or iphone for smart phones, Microsoft dont have this image and they need to make that image like they have done with the xbox in the gaming world. If they do manage to do this it would give google and apple something to really worry about.