There's part of the Jobs philosophy that MS need
And this conflicts with what the article thinks entirely. Microsoft need to start thinking of new ideas on their own. Just providing their customers what they are asking for isn't the way to riches and long life, the current boom in tablets shows this. They need to be out there coming up with new classes of thing that users didn't realise they wanted or was even possible.
To go back to the common car analogy, before the car was the horse drawn buggy. Microsoft's current strategy is to make better buggies, and to strap 2 stroke motors to the back of some of them. They need to be getting in to proper car design and manufacture while working out how to give the world jetpacks.