The point is that we really don't know what was going on behind the curtains, and what numbers they truly had, read and acted upon. I suspect that the numbers were bad, and board approved Elop's burning platform. In retrospect, the burning platform letter was stupid, but he was following 101 business school class to align everyone in new direction, by telling the people where they were going. We can be armchair quarterbacks here, but we dont have all the info that made the board hire Elop and give him permission to burn the platform.