Ballmer has been filmed screaming developers and talked about throwing a chair. MSFT revenues have grown under his time, but the company isn't sexy. Have there been opportunities lost? Yes. To say it has lost? They have many years of mocking their cash cows before all is lost. MSFT has an odd habit of learning and adapting. We will see if that still exists.

It has been awhile but at one point MSFT spent more on pure research than AAPL did on their whole R&D budget. Research takes time, but AT&T and IBM aren't doing much of it these years. Investing in research is another plus, not in the near term.