[raganwald]

I agree, that was a weak beat. I consider the surface computer to be like a concept car from Detroit: it's an exercie in puffery. Apple did the same thing with their "Knowledge Navigator" video.

And any ways, stealing from Apple is MSFT's job. I sold my MSFT stock a while back, but if I still had any I would be distressed if they weren't stealing anything. We're talking about Ballmer's job here. His job is to make the stock make money for investors.

Does anyone go long on MSFT because they want to put some R&D in their portfolio? I don't think so. They buy MSFT because they want to invest in a company that executes on monetizing other people's ideas.

(side beat: much as they invest in GOOG because they want to invest in a company that monetizes other people's content.)