twitter's Journal: Microsoft bottom line still unaffected by Vista

Once again, Vista and Office 2007 have failed to grow M$'s bottom line. The author gloats that Vista's poor quality and lack of acceptance have done nothing to the "Microsoft Money Machine" but then warns of bad things to come:

None of this, however, has had any discernible impact on Microsoft's financial fortunes. ... "In the short term, they'll get the money whether people upgrade or not," says Mr Silver [of Gartner]. ... In the longer term, however, the disenchantment over Vista could take a toll. ... "I don't think Microsoft can say they're the leader in operating systems anymore," says Mr Cherry [of Directions on Microsoft].

Another way to spin this news is that M$'s upgrade machine, after six years of disuse, no longer works. They have been unable to lock step upgrade people to Vista and grow their revenue the way they did through the 90s.

Because this was a M$NBC article, the L word was never used. Instead, Apple was seen a the successor to Windows. Whatever. Without the network effect M$ will sink like a stone.