I don't know what the new Microsoft wants. What is it that they want to sell? This is important and you can't just say "everything to everyone".
Amazon.com has a focus on retail. They sell stuff and the Kindle (including Kindle Fire) line is just a medium to get it to the customer. If FedEx and others kicked the bucket tomorrow and Amazon felt UPS was too strong as a vendor, they'd probably start their own logistics department. If they felt Comcast was too dominant, they'd probably want to do something about that as well.
Google's focus is arguably its services (which it uses to push ads). Apple is stubbornly a devices (hardware) company.
However, it is unclear what Microsoft's angle is here. Do they want to make money selling software through OEMs? It doesn't seem like they want to push prices of hardware down. They make too much money off of enterprise software to cut that arm off. Online services does not make enough money to let it completely cannibalize the software licensing cash cow yet.
From what I understand Microsoft's goal is to become less of a software company and more of a devices and services company[0]. In that light, the acquisition of the mobile devision of Nokia seems to make sense.
And I guess it's pretty much the same strategy as Apple is following, especially now Apple has made Mavericks and several Mac OS apps free of charge.
Amazon.com has a focus on retail. They sell stuff and the Kindle (including Kindle Fire) line is just a medium to get it to the customer. If FedEx and others kicked the bucket tomorrow and Amazon felt UPS was too strong as a vendor, they'd probably start their own logistics department. If they felt Comcast was too dominant, they'd probably want to do something about that as well.
Google's focus is arguably its services (which it uses to push ads). Apple is stubbornly a devices (hardware) company.
However, it is unclear what Microsoft's angle is here. Do they want to make money selling software through OEMs? It doesn't seem like they want to push prices of hardware down. They make too much money off of enterprise software to cut that arm off. Online services does not make enough money to let it completely cannibalize the software licensing cash cow yet.
I am glad I don't run Microsoft. I would be lost.