Because Microsoft. There was a time when Microsoft was practically printing money, even ignoring corporate contracts. People were cycling through their PCs at an extremely regular rate which in turn resulted in massive revenues for Microsoft as each new machine was accompied by a variety of licensed software. But then something happened. It wasn't long ago that a computer was outdated in 6 months and obsolete in 2 years. Now? You can buy a PC and, unless you either do high end gaming or engage in a handful of esoteric high performance tasks, it'll last indefinitely. Buy this new phone that's slightly faster and slightly thinner than the last one you bought is not a sustainable keystone business model.

If they want to stay on top, they need to move on. But to what? Self driving cars seem like they stand a very good chance of being the next huge industry.