"design and quality only appeal to a subset of consumers"… so this means what exactly? Microsoft isn't focusing on design and quality? Who doesn't care about these things? How can that possibly be a separating factor?<p>People have been repeatedly stating that "Apple risks losing its dominance based on its closed system" - and <i>that has never materialized</i>. Yet people still say it. VentureBeat keeps writing it. And if anything - Apple has proven the exact opposite.<p>Its iPhone division makes more money than all of Microsoft. That very division is based on the premise that people <i>do</i> care about design and quality. How can the author possibly ignore this?<p>I, for one, am hoping Apple gets a challenge in this space. Competition is good for the consumer and right now it's a one-horse race and Apple is completely crushing the competition by <i>not even trying</i> to compete. Think on that - they just push new products, and everyone else scrambles to try and differentiate themselves… and they fail!<p>Someday Apple will have competition in this arena. And of all the candidates out there I can see it being Microsoft. The company is quite strong and if Ballmer finally gets the boot - yes I can see a new wave of optimism and effort here. Maybe.<p>To suggest that it's in the offing right now? With what - a consumer preview of Windows 8 that no one really likes? I don't know how you can put your name to that article.