In life some of us have rules we follow, just like some people have lists.
Case in point. Never buy a Microsoft branded hardware device and expect it to last more than a few years. How many people ever bought Microsoft 802.11 routers? I did. But do you see them on store shelves any more? Nope.
Microsoft uses hardware to prove what can be done with their technology, gets it out there with radical evangelism, learns from the market and then goes back to their knitting. Software.
This is exactly what happened with their IP-PBX, Response Point. In the product they built a best of breed example of what could be done. Learned alot about VoIP and then scuttled the hardware version.
Pal Tom Keating has a good R.I.P. memorial type post about it, headlining it with the word Kill included. Premeditated murder may have been a better description.