Microsoft Begins Death Spiral

I wrote about this originally on March 14th in Microsoft, When Will Investors Lose Confidence? Technology companies often die this way. Once faith in a platform diminishes, sales lag, investors get nervous, stock prices fall, bad press ensues, faith diminishes... eventually leads to death. Microsoft is probably not beyond the point of no return, but then they seem to have no products in the pipeline that could turn things around. Their one bright spot, business apps (Office and Server), will eventually be hurt by the rest of the business and does not provide a way to bring up the rest of the business. Current management seems to be hopelessly inadequate. I find it unlikely they have more than a year or so to turn things around. It is likely they'll reach some sort of zombie-like status when 4Q13 holiday sales are announced in February 2014.

Here's a selection of articles (there were many, many more):

Microsoft leads tech-ad spending in the first quarter with Windows 8 push

Microsoft stock plummets 11%

Microsoft's $900 million Surface RT write-down: How did this happen?

Microsoft was wrong: Tablets are not PCs. So now what?

This article is a bit harsh, but they have been calling things correctly since the start.
Microsoft drove the bus off the cliff, now it tries to speed up

Did we all just witness Windows start to die?

It's Official: Legacy Tech Vendors Are In Permanent Decline

The demise of Microsoft’s monopoly and the PC market, by the numbers

Microsoft must embrace 'grim option' of Windows cannibalization


Also, Nokia is doing poorly. This is related because essentially, Nokia is Windows Phone.

Nokia Q2 sales fall 24%, misses expectations

Moody's issues credit warning on Nokia