the new microsoft outlook

7.31: co.apt/cyb/the new microsoft outlook:
. what is the significance of microsoft getting into hardware?
I would have thought this was more of them owning the platform
just so they could abuse their position of power;
but they don't really have the power of monopoly anymore,
because, they are losing ground to opensource (google, apple).
. one thing I just noticed was that
they used to have a lot of clout with hardware vendors,
because hardware vendors needed ms's os;
but increasingly people are just as happy running linux;
so that may be a factor in why ms should be
very interested in getting into hardware
-- so it can still have control over that .