My take? Well, people still buy nine Windows machines for every Mac. The big reason? As those say, you get a lot more for your money from a Windows machine (including more frustration). And the message appears to be getting through; a year ago, Apple was the number three PC maker in the U.S., according to IDC. Now it's .

On the other hand, Microsoft can't make a dent in Apple's stranglehold on the portable music market or touch Apple's technology lead in handsets. But worse than that: Consumers love Apple the way they love puppies and ice cream. Aside from , people barely tolerate Microsoft. And it's only getting worse. According to VendorRate, MSFT's customer satisfaction among IT pros .

This week at Microsoft's worldwide partner confab in New Orleans, Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner threw another jab at Apple, sharing this nifty little anecdote ():

...two weeks ago we got a call from the Apple legal department saying, "Hey, you need to stop running those ads, we lowered our prices." They took like $100 off or something. It was the greatest single phone call in the history that I've ever taken in business.

I did cartwheels down the hallway. At first I said, "Is this a joke? Who are you?" Not understanding what an opportunity. And so we're just going to keep running them and running them and running them.