Why did Microsoft do it?

Richard wrote:

I wasn't taking pot shots at you but some of the stuff you find on the web is so laughable. When they try an come up with new phrases like consumer compute then say Microsoft needs to recover again is laughable somehow because of windows 8 Microsoft has gone down hill. Microsoft is a software company and they do produce some phones and have a very small market share, but did they include sales of xbox and game software. Please, they are doing fine. They are taking a little risk with windows 8. But in the past people complained they have never taken risks, just copy Xerox for the mouse and keyboard, Apple for the windows interface. Really Apple made the touch screen popular, they are just taking the lead and putting it on a desktop. Only time will tell if this was a good idea but in reality because you can still drive with the mouse, you are not risking much. It is new, people don't like change, but they will get use to it or they will be driving windows 8 with a mouse. Think about it even to date, Mac has less than 10 percent of the PC market because they are way overpriced and most consumers are smart enough not to buy their overpriced products and they have been around for years, then take away the cost and make it free and you have Linux but even with its simpler installation and graphical windows type interface it still has small market share... and it is free! How many companies do well as microsoft when the competition has a very similar product that is free?