by , 12:05 PM EDT, October 30th, 2007

Microsoft has blundered with Vista in terms of its user interface approach, and it won't take long before Apple's gain in market share will become staggering, according to Don Reisinger in his C|Net Blog.

"Simply put, Mac OS X Leopard is one of the most significant operating system achievements we have witnessed in years," Mr. Reisinger wrote. "Not only does it add functionality that Microsoft could only have dreamed of, it does so in a snappy environment that doesn't annoy you with pop-ups asking for permission or all of those security threats we have come to know (and hate) in Windows."

Basically, Microsoft has fallen and it can't get up. Microsoft's own allies in PC manufacturing balked at Vista from a consumer perspective and continued to retain XP as an option. "The entire industry is disappointed by Windows Vista. I really don't think that someone has bought a new PC specifically for Vista," Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci explained.

As a result, Microsoft has been forced to launch a premature marketing campaign that discusses the Vista successor and remedies that will be taken in order to take the sting out of the poor reception of Vista. In addition, XP Service Pack #3 will essentially eliminate the need for Vista.

Microsoft's corporate response has been to helplessly flail about by purchasing companies that will help it retain relevance. However, more to the point, Microsoft has lost the ability to change. As a result, the rise of Apple's market share will become more and more noticeable, and Microsoft will continue to unravel.