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Microsoft is the company everyone loves to hate, so the smug satisfaction from critics was palpable Tuesday as the company acknowledged it would have to revamp its Windows 8 operating system. Is this the fatal blow to the lumbering tech giant, given Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called the Windows 8 launch a "bet-the-company" moment last October? No. Mr. Ballmer hardly bet the company (it was a dumb thing to say, but Mr. Ballmer has a penchant for saying dumb things); even a complete flame-out by Windows 8 (unlikely) won't change the fact that he continues to run one of the steadiest and most successful – if unloved – companies in the tech business.

Windows 8 was supposed to propel Microsoft into the mobile computing age, but it's starting to look like Research in Motion's foray into the tablet market: a less-than-successful attempt to appeal to different customer segments with a one-size-fits-all offering that fits nobody particularly well. Windows 8 combined operating systems for both mouse-operated desktops and touchscreen-guided smartphones and tablets. Buyers haven't liked it, and retailers have had a hard time explaining it.

Embarrassing, to be sure. But Microsoft has survived bad product launches before (see Vista), and with 100 million licences sold to date, Windows 8 is hardly a total failure. Many of Microsoft's conservative enterprise customers – the backbone of its business – are still installing Windows 7, so the company has lots of time to get this right (or at least better), starting with a Windows 8 upgrade later this year.

Others have written about the decline of the personal computer market, Microsoft's bread-and-butter. Certainly the top-line news is alarming: sales in the global PC segment fell to 79.2 million units in the first quarter, 11 per cent lower than the same period last year, a much steeper drop than originally thought, market research firm Gartner noted recently. PCs still outsell tablets by a 3-to-2 ratio, but that gap is closing fast.

But there is one big bright spot: PC sales to the enterprise market, which account for roughly half of shipments, actually increased as customers replaced older computers. That market is still dominated by Microsoft and has too much invested in PCs to abandon them for the foreseeable future; its Office software products face no serious rivals (sorry, Google).

Microsoft's business is still diversified and extremely profitable, with both revenue and operating profit growth coming from its Windows, server and tools, business and entertainment and devices divisions. The company is preparing to launch the latest version of its popular Xbox gaming console, while its fast-growing Azure service is making Microsoft one of the biggest players in the cloud computing business.

The company sits on a massive war chest of patents, which have paid off; some observers have estimated that Microsoft makes between $1 and $8 (U.S.) in patent licensing deals from each Android device shipped – good for a tidy mid-nine-figure sum per year. Compare Microsoft to a tech company and it may look like a turtle; but compare it to the S&P 500 average and it trades at a steep discount on a price-to-earnings basis, and pays a higher dividend (and one which has been increasing steadily for years).

Add it all up and it's little wonder Microsoft stock barely budges on news of the Windows 8 do-over. If anything, the stock may still have room to run after a sharp increase in recent weeks. Next time Mr. Ballmer takes a bet, it might be wiser for him to wager on the stock instead of a product launch.

Sean Silcoff is a contributor to ROB Insight, the business commentary service available to Globe Unlimited subscribers. Click here for more of his Insights, and follow Sean on Twitter at @seansilcoff.

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