This post was intially a comment on this Mashable post Why Microsoft Is Being Left in the Dust but I figured it was too long and needed its own post

The demise of Microsoft has been predicted continuously over the last 20 years however what most commentators forget is that Microsoft innovates best when its the under-dog:

a) Browsers – beat Netscape to a pulp and was the browser kng for the next 10 year do I hear IE 6, and today after steady decline IE has 50% market share and holding steady, watch out for a rise with IE 10

b) Desktop – anybody remember OS2

c) Office Productivity – Wordperfect, Lotus 1-2-3 anyone

d) Exchange – Novel Groupware

e) Networking/Active Directory – Novel Netware, hey Windows NT, how many people use Windows boxes for Active Directory and File and Print against Samba

f) Xbox – do I hear Nintendo DS/PS3 is just picking up but Sony is suffering

g) Databases – Watchout Oracle/DB2 SQL server is deep within the departments and getting many enterprise features

h) Antivirus – McAfee/Norton/Kaspersky watch out for the free MS Security Essentials I know I have never looked back

i) Corporate Intranets – Documentum watch out for Sharepoint

j) Open Source – top 10 contributer to Linux, being a developer PHP/MySQL support for windows excellent

k) Programming Languages – .NET has caught up, seems like each and every NGO/UN department is running licensed Windows/IIS/SQL Server/Sharepoint/Exchange

l) Android – who has made the most money from licensing patents, Samsung/HTC/Barnes and Noble/Motorolla are all paying

m) Mobile – they may be late to this game, but PCs are here to stay and compliment smartphones/tablets, so there is no danger there, Linux is not yet mature enough for the desktop and Mac OSX not available

n) Research Labs – apart from IBM which uses research as a competitive edge, HP closed down their, Google are still in the game, the only other company in this big time seems to be Redmond

o) Healthcare – with those US automation dollars flowing down

p) Enterprise Applications – they may have faltered but this market is growing with Navison and Dynamics

q) Channel – who else is bigger and better at harnessing this resource, these are an extension of the sales force

r) Development tools – I do not use them but they are the envy of many a developer

Please share your thougts and opinions