Microsoft has always understood that to win a platform war, you must engage the developer community. More than engage: Energize. Empower. Aggressive support for developers, through great tools, outstanding technical guidance and marketing assistance, propelled Windows past OS/2 so many years ago. It’s how Microsoft has remained the desktop leader for so many years.

But the world has changed, and in important new spaces (smartphones, tablets and the cloud), Microsoft clearly is lagging. Not only are consumers voting for non-Microsoft products, but developers are as well.

Take phones. Apple and Google, with iOS and Android, have raced out of the starting gate and left Microsoft plodding, well up the track and way off the pace of smartphones and tablets.