Apologies not needed. That raises a question though.
I was implying that Apple and Microsoft don't do as well building web services. I wouldn't argue that Azure can't scale but the overall approach seems to be a little bit "unfinished".
Let me explain, the only true cloud computing environment that really solves 90% of any companies needs is AWS. Somehow Amazon understands what the developer community needs. I'm really perplexed by Google not getting this right.
Apple doesn't and I don't believe Microsoft does either.
I don't think this is about technical chops. It's something else that I can't put my finger on.
Similar to how I don't understand how Amazon crushed Best Buy so quickly.
At Microsoft's size they aren't really looking for "pretty big deal" successes.
Bing is probably around 15% market share. A home run for most but not (yet) for MS.
I can't really comment on Windows Azure. I'll take your word for it but I think Amazon is eating Google and Microsoft's lunch here.
This isn't a fight for second place.....