Opinion: A closer look at the Microsoft write-down – and the death of Windows Phone

Introduction and Ballmer's follyMicrosoft is a company on the edge, not of disaster per se but of a choice between what it could be and what it will be. Under the stewardship of Satya Nadella, the company has, at least from the perspective of an outsider, progressed more in a single year than it did under the latter half-decade of Steve Ballmer's reign, both in terms of culture (which, admittedly, is hard to define) and strategic direction. Of course, one of the defining moments of Steve Ballmer