We know Microsoft’s stock price has dipped in recent months to its lowest level in years. We also know that they have begun to lay off several thousand employees to cut costs, citing declining PC sales as the reason.

Certainly a company has the right to shed workers as it sees fit, particularly when there’s no union contract to be concerned about. However, that’s not the main issue at stake here. It’s whether Microsoft really understands why business is down and what they need to do in order to set things right.

To my way of thinking it’s highly doubtful, although they will certainly earn high profits from their sales for years to come. You can see some of the problems when you examine the prerelease versions of their future products, as many journalists and individual users have already done.

Let’s start with Internet Explorer 8, their latest update to what is still the world’s most used browser, although its market share dominance is far below what it used to be.

Story continued in this week’s Tech Night Owl Newsletter.

Just when folks were settling down to figure out how best to deal with the complicated structure of the remote control on the new iPhone shuffle, along comes news that the iPhone 3.0 software will be previewed at a special Apple media event next week.

To put this all in perspective, this would be the first time Apple has run such a presentation — outside of the Macworld Expo keynote of course — since Steve Jobs went on his extended sick leave. So no doubt the folks who will be present will include the appropriate Apple product marketing people, with perhaps a development person or two to provide the appropriate geek veneer to the event.

More important, though, is how innovative Apple’s developers have been over the past year, since the iPhone 2.0 software was revealed. Have they answered the complaints with the previous firmware, and are there loads of spiffy new features with which to help sell the next generation of iPhones — and the existing ones of course?

In any event, it’s probably way too late to submit our wish lists to Apple. Although things can probably change during the final stages of a development program, I expect that you will see what you’re going to get. So the best I’m going to do here is just tell you what I’d like to them to introduce, and we’ll know soon enough whether Apple intends to fulfill my needs and desires — and yours.

First and foremost, there’s cut, copy and paste, hallmarks of the Mac OS user experience since Day One. Although Apple has said it’s on their “to do” list, why it hasn’t risen to the top is anyone’s guess. Indeed, third parties have already implemented methods of utilizing these basic editing features in their own iPhone apps. Of course, those services are limited to a single product, whereas Apple would have to implement a clipboard system that lets you move text between apps. I realize that presents a greater obstacle, and I’ll grant they were looking for a clever way to make it happen. One hopes that iPhone 3.0 will provide this long-neglected capability.

There’s also voice dialing. You can do it on the cheapest Bluetooth-enabled phone, the one they give you free or for a token fee when you sign up for the requisite two-year contract with your wireless provider. Sure, those systems can be rather pathetic in the scheme of things, but they do work most of the time. You also have voice-enabled apps on the iPhone, but again Apple has missed the boat here. But I am optimistic that iPhone 3.0 will provide a workable solution, and, one hopes, a superior voice quality when compared to the robotic syntax of the VoiceOver feature implemented on the new iPod shuffle.

The other feature missing in action is “Push Notification,” a method to sidestep the need to run more than a single application at a time yet still provide some sort of communication to you when you switch from an app and it needs to provide some sort of message. AOL has worked around this missing capability with AIM 2.0, simply by letting you configure how long their network thinks you’re online, even if you are using another app at the time. But they do tell me that, when Push Notification (which is months late) finally appears, they’ll use it too.

Understand that my list of missing features, so far at least, has been confined simply to basics. I haven’t journeyed into other areas, such as perhaps a better way to handle the presence of large numbers of applications in your iPhone’s desktop. Paging through up to nine screens can be a chore, and one suggestion is to create a folder hierarchy of some sort, so you can drill down to find the ones that perhaps fit into a specific category. Remember, though, that I don’t pretend to be an interface designer. I’m just presenting a concept that, if Apple has considered the possibilities, they’d implement in a far more clever fashion. They can’t just duplicate all aspects of Mac OS X on a touch interface.

Another concern is stability. I still find myself having to restart my iPhone 3G every few days, but remember that I never actually turn it off. I just let it idle away when it’s not in use. Sometimes Mail or Safari will freeze, and I’ll have to force a restart. Otherwise, I’m just unceremoniously returned to Home.

I observe hands-free cell phone use in my car courtesy of a Bluetooth system. But the iPhone will on occasion simply lose its “pairing” for no reason. Again a restart will set things right. By the way, the vehicle setup includes its own usable voice recognition capability, so not having such a feature on the iPhone isn’t a priority, at least for me.

I know some of you would also like to be able to send photos via the iPhone’s text messaging feature. Not me, but I can see where that’s a significant matter.

In any case, prepare to be amazed — and no doubt a little disappointed — when Apple spills the beans at their special event come March 17.

At the beginning of the year, as thousands of Mac users prepared to endure a Macworld Expo keynote with substitute host Phil Schiller, there was plenty of speculation about what new products might be offered.

Alas, most of that speculation came for naught, because the product introductions were few and seemed far from satisfying. The initial chatter had it that there would be a major refresh for the iMac and the long-neglected Mac mini, and you know that didn’t happen — at least not then.

Some suggested Apple would deliver a Snow Leopard presentation of some sort, and they didn’t. Indeed, Snow Leopard has been handled in a very low-key fashion. When the word about 10.6 came out during last year’s WWDC, it wasn’t part of the keynote at all. There was only a modest mention of the subject in the form of a brief press announcement, and a page on Apple’s site. All we know now is what we knew then, sans the speculative chatter from the Mac rumor sites that claim to have seen the actual development versions, and the suggestion that it must be launched on June 8th, since that’s the expected timeframe for the WWDC keynote.

Well, I suppose the date for the WWDC is probably correct, although that would fall somewhat earlier than the expected return of Steve Jobs to his CEO post. That assumes, of course, that he does come back, and some are suggesting that his swan song has already been sung.

Besides, even if Snow Leopard is demonstrated, that doesn’t guarantee a specific release date.

Regardless, the updates to the Mac mini and the iMac were accompanied by a more-or-less surprise revision to the Mac Pro. All well and good. Sure, the mini refresh was not a big deal. Apple merely incorporated parts from the MacBook, put them in the same difficult-to-open case, and kept the prices the same. Well, at least the model is no longer long-in-the-teeth, neglected, forgotten or whatever label you want to put on their method of handling the Mac mini up till now.

Indeed, there are preliminary reports that the new Mac desktops shot up demand big time and even the mini is proving to be a popular item. Perhaps Apple would have sold more if they pushed out this update earlier.

As for the Mac Pro, the Intel Nehalem processor, the latest iteration of the Xeon, is so new that it appears other PC makers haven’t even gotten ahold of a supply for their PC workstations. That, however, is not surprising. Apple has gotten first digs at new Xeons ahead of the pack for earlier generations of the Mac Pro. While the rest of the upgrade merely simplifies the expansion process, the first benchmarks show that the Nehalem is up to twice as fast as the Harpertown processors it replaced.

Maybe not revolutionary, but certainly good for content creators who cherish the best possible performance from their Mac hardware. The only downside is that the higher-end dual quad-core configurations present a serious financial obstacle, since they come in $1,400 increments above the basic 2.26 GHz version. Ouch! Well, maybe the upgrades will get cheaper after the Nehalem production runs increase to decent levels. They always do.

The most fascinating new product from Apple, however, costs a mere $79. It’s the new iPod shuffle, which weighs about a third of an ounce and is about the size of a regular-sized key. Inside is 4GB of Flash memory, good for an average of 1,000 songs. That’s the same capacity as the first full-sized iPod released in 2002. Well that’s how technology advances.

For those who complained about the lack of a visual indicator of what song you’re playing on a shuffle, Apple’s response is definitely original. Let the shuffle tell you, using Mac OS X’s VoiceOver technology. Now I wasn’t expecting much in terms of voice quality or a fluid conversation flow. Apple’s own demonstration reveals a fairly ordinary computerized sound, not much different than the voices that were once ubiquitous in science fiction movies when a spaceship’s onboard computer was accessed. Well, with one exception, being the late Majel Barrett Roddenberry, perhaps best known as the voice of the Enterprise’s computer in Star Trek.

Now licensing her voice for the new iPod would have been innovative, assuming, of course, that those rights are actually available.

In any case, the new shuffle otherwise seems to be a pretty sweet deal, except for the fact that critical controls are found in the headphones. That might lessen the use of third-party alternatives without the special buttons, unless you stick to the ones adjacent to the headphone jack on the gadget itself.

In any case, price is surely not going to be a factor preventing people from stocking up on a shuffle or two for friends, family and maybe even coworkers. So above all else, maybe it’ll help restart iPod sales.

However, I can well understand why many will continue to say that none of these new products smacks of originality, really. On the other hand, they all represent reasonably natural evolutions for the various product lines, and that may be all Apple needs right now.

More to the point, it doesn’t stop Apple from delivering some pretty fancy products between now and the end of the year. Still to come is a third generation iPhone, the fall revision for the entire iPod line and maybe even a netbook or variant, assuming the rumors are accurate.

Besides, did you think that the decision of Steve Jobs to take a few months of sick days would stop Apple from delivering products that were probably in the pipeline long before his announced hiatus?

It has begun. Even the mainstream media is busy posting stories about when Apple is expected to introduce new products later this year.

It all started when someone did some basic research (for a change) and discovered that time was reserved for a corporate gathering beginning the second week of June at the Moscone West exhibition hall in San Francisco. That’s where Apple has been holding its developer events in recent years, and the selection corresponds to the timeframe of a typical Apple WWDC gathering, so it stands to reason that they’ve outed Apple about the so-far unannounced event.

All well and good, and I’l grant that the information is accurate, except for the fact that, until the WWDC is officially announced, those dates can change, although it would seem that Moscone’s schedule is pretty full and juggling events is probably not very easy.

But even if we are certain now when WWDC will take place, it doesn’t necessarily follow that we know what products will be launched there.

It does seem logical that Snow Leopard will play a part. Certainly developers will want to participate actively in informational sessions on the new operating system, particularly since the release is expected by mid-year. That, though, doesn’t mean Mac OS 10.6 will necessarily go on sale beginning with the WWDC keynote. It could happen before or after, even if the event is heavily devoted to that topic.

Despite the clear uncertainty over the matter, it hasn’t stopped some members of the media from declaring Snow Leopard must be “launched” at that event.

What will really happen may really depend on how well development progresses between now and then. That, my friends, is something I doubt many people outside of Apple know, and they aren’t telling.

The next possibility is iPhone 3.0. This doesn’t seem a great stretch, although perhaps a tad premature. Last year’s rollout of the iPhone 3G occurred in mid-July. It doesn’t have to be WWDC related, although it’s certainly possible Apple might announce a date and perhaps introduce a major upgrade to the iPhone SDK and perhaps even the App Store.

I have no inside information to offer here. I’m just putting last year’s events in perspective. Besides, after a year, a smartphone is quite long in the tooth.

The next theory has it that Apple is poised to release its first netbook in the second half of the year. Again, it could be introduced at WWDC, and there may be good reasons for that, particularly if such a gadget uses a modified version of the iPhone software to function.

This information supposedly comes from sources in Asia that are not known to be particularly reliable. Indeed, rumors of new Apple products have been spread far and wide in previous years from similar alleged “insiders.” Few have come to pass.

Also, let’s not forget that Apple has, so far at least, thrown cold water on netbook prospects, but they haven’t shut the door entirely. Both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook have stated that Apple won’t produce what they regard as “junk,” which as their parlance for PCs that sell for less than $500. Yes, the original Mac mini came in at $499, but the current model, far more powerful, lists for $599.

If Apple releases a sub-note-book of this sort, just what form would it take. Well, there are folks who apparently still adore their small screen PowerBooks with screens ranging from 10 inches to 12 inches. Now I’m not one of those people. I like larger screens and anything smaller than my 17-inch MacBook Pro would cramp my style big time.

The latest talk is in the range of 10 inches. So how would Apple implement such a product? Would it just be a stripped down MacBook? Well a smaller screen and case wouldn’t account for more than $200 off the price of the entry-level white MacBook, which now sells for $999. But that’s still somewhat out of netbook territory. Indeed, Apple would probably have to come in at around $499 to $599 for it to make sense and it would have to differentiate itself sufficiently from a regular Mac note-book not to cannibalize sales at the low end.

That’s the dilemma being confronted by PC makers now. Microsoft’s dilemma, of course, is what to do about the lost licensing fees because current netbooks come with Windows XP or — worse — Linux. Well, worse from their standpoint. They are hoping a crippled version of Windows 7 will fill the bill.

Apple, on the other hand, has more options, one of which harkens back to the eMate 300, a tiny portable computer based on the Newton that was circulated in the educational market over a decade ago. The screen was even tinier, but the keyboard was, as I recall, reasonably usable.

Now consider a 21st century equivalent, with a touch screen of seven to 10 inches in size, based on the iPhone version of OS X. To take advantage of a wireless carrier’s subsidies, Apple would want to consider including telephone capability with it. Otherwise, it might become an expensive item, although using a standard hard drive and larger parts are sure to reduce production costs.

In the end, I don’t know how this will play out. It could be that the netbook is just a flash in the pan, something people are buying now out of necessity, because of their economic situation. If things improve, they might dump their netbooks and get regular note-books again. If that happens to any large degree, all this talk will be for naught. And don’t think Apple hasn’t considered those possibilities in deciding how to move forward.