Steve Ballmer (CEO of Microsoft) says so, but it does not make it true. Microsoft Vista just happens to be bundled really well in a sticky manner which makes it very hard for a consumer to get rid of the bundled Microsoft product (Vista) when buying a new computer. The sales of computers are soaring. Therefore statistics will show that Vista is “selling really well”.

In any case, the invisible hand of the market does not agree with Mr. Ballmer’s view.

Have a look at the picture of Microsoft (MSFT) versus Apple (AAPL) stock price. The launch date of Microsoft Vista, 30th January 2007, is shown with a vertical line.

To summarize: Microsoft - going down. Apple - going up. The tipping point seems to have been the launch of Vista.

There are other issues, of course. Microsoft’s problems with Google and their lack of presence in the search engine space has been a source of frustration, prompting Mr. Ballmer to throw a chair and threaten to “fucking bury that guy [the Google CEO Eric Schmidt]”. Then Microsoft failed with their attempt to buy Yahoo. Although the Yahoo-case is not yet fully closed, it seems that Microsoft is losing in more fronts than one.

Meanwhile Apple sells products which people seem to really want. And let’s not forget Linux (described by Mr. Ballmer as “communism”), which keeps on growing and empowering people, and letting them truly innovate (in the real, non-Microsoftian meaning of the word).

Update:
This page and the stock picture had ended up at Reddit.com. Judging from the comments, some people just did not understand the whole point of the picture. On the other hand, to my great delight some people understood the point really well, for example see this this comment by “aboothe726″.