>I dont know who is doing your purchasing but through volume licensing enterprise pay significantly less per cal than a home user could ever hope of getting.

True, but what is the cost of one license of Windows? I mean, what is the true cost of goods sold for one copy of Windows? If Microsoft can sign one contract to sell 100 licenses rather than pay to ship discs and sell them in stores individually, the cost substantially goes down and their profits substantially go up. I actually meant to say "Professional" rather than Home Premium, since that is what unexpected was talking about. A mis-type on my part.

>Also I am not sure its clear cut that dividends in general are a great thing.

They are making sackloads of cash, don't need further capital investment that selling stock brings, and are still able to return money to their investors. That's doing good business.

>This only takes into account the desktop market which is quickly becoming less relevant than the mobile market where MS has no dominance and little growth.

People keep saying this, but I'm yet to see a family that doesn't own a laptop or two. I've yet to find a college student without a laptop or without making use of a computer lab (running Windows). I've yet to see any real number of large corporations switching to Macs. We can discuss the future when it gets here, until then it's all wild speculation.

>They are streaming mostly from the web not saved content.

I did say among other places, just indicating that it was possible since it was alluded that it is not.

>Is Access really the killer app from Office?

It doesn't need to be. All it needs is to be needed in some capacity, and bundled with a more expensive package. If you want HBO, you're paying for basic cable as well.

>That is insanity.

Well what's the difference between a Chevy Impala, a Malibu, and a Cruze? I can get the same number of seats, the same size engine, and the same number of doors. Maybe it's the fault of Dell (still not sure how Dell has anything to do with Microsoft's naming, it's a little off topic) for not educating their users better, or maybe it's the fault of their users for being complete morons.

Look at their laptop site:

Inspiron - Everyday Computing (+MacBook)

Z Series - Thin and Powerful (+MacBook Air)

XPS - High Performance (+MacBook Pro)

Alienware - Extreme Gaming (+Mac doesn't compete here)

(+my editorial)

Yeah, they actually tell you the use-case for their various brands. Funny how they do that. No one seems to complain about the differences between the MacBook, the MacBook Pro, or the MacBook Air, though they can all be spec'd close to the same too. Shit, Dell even lets you sort by the exact features you want. You need an SSD and 16GB of RAM? There are check boxes along the side of the screen that say 16GB and Solid State Drive. Click them and your choices are down to 9 configurations between Alienware and XPS. Pick your processor and hard drive size. Magic.

>And Microsofts marketing does a horrible job at making that clear.

Disagree

>That is not a fault of the consumer.

Agree. It's not the fault of the consumer, because the consumer is never going to get confused by it. It's the fault of the tech media and the family tech support for confusing the users. If my grandma knows what version of Windows she's running, it's because I told her. If she knows how many versions she's not running, again it's because I told her. No consumer will look at the shelf and say "Shit there's seven versions, which one will I buy?!" because they will only see two, know they are a home user, and buy that one.

Actually the more likely case is they'll buy a computer with it preloaded and not give two shits about what version they're running.

It's not Microsoft's marketing failure if they're not marketing products you can't buy. Do you know about Windows 7 Enterprise from an advertisement, or is it because Engadget had a scathing editorial on the subject?