> Microsoft to get serious against these consumer-centric companies like Apple and Google
Microsoft can't do that. It's not in their DNA. Every time Microsoft has tried to make something consumer-centric it ended up flopping eventually. Sometimes things lasted a surprisingly long time!
But their consumer-focused stuff like Zune, Xbox, even their keyboards & mice, eventually all kinda lost focus.
Windows mobile was a weird one because they tried to use the same formula they always use - a corporate OS that had all sorts of knobs and buttons for SysAdmins to manage corporate phones. You could join a Windows phone to a domain and manage it.
Xbox was pretty successful for a while because MS just has so much clout with game developers.
Zune flopped HARD. I think the Surface product line has been kinda here and there - a total failure for consumers but some businesses like it... but not many, because most businesses have a relationship with Dell.