Microsoft Gets Demoted by Dilbert

Is Dilbert creator Scott Adams an Apple fanboy? It seems so according to a new Dilbert comic strip that takes a not-so-subtle jab at Microsoft.

The software giant (Is it still a software giant?) is not mentioned by name, but it couldn’t be more obvious. If this is an indication of how real corporations feel, then Microsoft is in for a challenging next few years.

The strip is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It’s good for a chuckle, but it goes for the jugular with “the ugly truth.” The “if you redesign your logo and produce a tablet that no one buys, at least it will look like you’re trying” line adds new polish to a criticism that’s been dogging Microsoft for at least five years: The company is falling woefully behind.

It is true that Microsoft’s long delay in getting into the tablet and smartphone markets has bruised the company badly. But lest you forget, Windows still runs on 90 percent of computers, Internet Explorer has close to 50 percent browser market share and its Business Division (the Office ecosystem) generated $5.5 billion in revenue last quarter.

With that said, all those riches could sputter if Microsoft’s Surface tablet and other Windows 8 devices fail to deliver as the masses migrate to the iPad and Android-based tablets like the Google Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD.

Microsoft does have the luxury of boatloads of money, which can buy it time and a chance to reinvent itself, or at least keep on extending that “long slide toward irrelevance.”