Your thesis is based on the idea that Microsoft is dead because nobody fears them anymore. I think this is the wrong way to look at it. Does fear = relevance? It can, but how many people fear IBM? I doubt many. IBM is not dead. It's come back from the ashes of the late 1980s. They used to be feared, but I don't think that's the case anymore. Probably the only company that does fear them is Sun.

I think one reason people are less afraid of Microsoft is they're doing things that are less scary. I agree with one commenter that customers might fear them more than entreprenuers do. They're gradually making their client technologies more cross-platform, not Windows specific. Customer requests were probably a big part of that, but it may reflect a change of consciousness on the part of Microsoft's workforce, too.

I think Microsoft will remain relevant, just less scary.

I think Google's gotten a little scary with the deal they made to censor search results in China. They found an exception to their "don't be evil" motto.