Microsoft is in a lot more trouble than they realize. When I asked my kids (6 & 8) what windows was, they were clueless. They knew what my Mac was, and they know and love ipads, iphones, and ipod touches. The long term trend of kids like mine is not good for MSFT. Are you hearing this from others with kids?

Asked by Anonymous

Yep. That’s something so simple and so obvious that is often overlooked — the future. And the best way to gauge that is to look at kids today. They use iPads and iPod touches and Android devices. Forget about Mac vs. PC, it’s all these new devices vs. PC — and the devices are winning.

Kids of my generation grew up with PCs. Those were the only computers we knew from an early age. Where are the kids today going to get that initial Windows PC exposure? Their computers are iPads. Their schools are filled with Macs — and those will probably be replaced by tablets in the not-too-distant future.

Microsoft’s only hope for this generation (and I believe they do know this) is to make sure those tablets are running Windows. But the trends of the past few years suggest that this will be a very steep uphill climb. As always, we’ll see.