Microsoft has been the big tech company that everyone loves to hate for a long time. This probably stems from it’s early dominance of PC operating systems, when users had to endure all the shortcomings of DOS and Windows. We had no choice.

Over the years, Microsoft has adopted an interesting strategy for technology companies. Rather than innovate, and get a “first mover” advantage, Microsoft is usually late to the party. It moves slowly, but when it moves, look out. Time and again, industry observers have mistaken this “sloth” for weakness, predicting Microsoft’s decline or even demise.

Here are a few examples that I can recall of this strategy paying off for Microsoft:

Fast forward to the mobile space. Microsoft recently announced the “Surface” – it’s upcoming entry into the tablet market, to compete against the iPad and Android based tablets. Also Microsoft is releasing Windows 8, promising a solid platform for mobile phones. Again, critics are saying these efforts are too little, too late. But I, for one, am not counting them out. In fact, I’m sure quite a few companies in that space are very, very worried.