It's great to see a 3 year view of Microsoft through the Gartner magic quadrant.

Gartner recently published it's 2007 view of unified communications

Microsoft

Strengths

• Microsoft is a strong company with an ecosystem of partners that can deliver value-added products, professional services and wide distribution.
• The company has strategic partnerships in specific areas, such as live voice, and IP and PBX add credibility in these technology and service areas.
• Parts of Microsoft's UC portfolio are very mature (for instance, e-mail), and the overall portfolio is quite complete, with partnerships in weaker areas. The newer parts of the portfolio likely will get wide exposure throughout 2008 and will mature rapidly as a result.
• An established base of desktop applications and experience in graphical user interface design will assist in making complex communication applications easier to use.
• Enterprises looking into UC, particularly those with Microsoft applications already in place, should understand the Microsoft portfolio because it represents a new paradigm for communication by a market leader. Microsoft’s solution is comprehensive but is also the basis for a range of partner offerings.

Cautions

• The telephony functionality in OCS and in Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging is new to the market. Although these are promising products, telephony and other live communication functionalities, such as video, frequently take several years to mature to the desired levels of reliability, quality of voice service and scalability.
• Live communications, such as telephony and video, require solution integrators with different skills than are available from some current Microsoft channel partners. Users should ensure that their providers have demonstrated relevant experience in these areas, such as voice.
• Microsoft has massive market clout and is leveraging this effectively. However, overly optimistic marketing materials from Microsoft and its channel sometimes underestimate the challenges and difficulties involved in making live communication functions, such as video and VoIP, reliable and of high quality.
• Some new telephony functions, such as soft telephony and unified messaging, are available as mature products through other vendors.