It does seem incredibly easy to criticize Microsoft's marketing staff and vendors. To witness such a blatant and public pummeling is frustrating.

Quoted: Either way, Microsoft needs to fire a chunk of its marketing staff and get on the ball. If Microsoft cannot craft a clear, concise message as to why one should choose its products over Apple's, no one will do so, and Microsoft is going to lose.

I wouldn't go so far (at least not at this point) to say "Microsoft is going to lose", but it's certainly an up hill battle.