Well, you're probably be right about the market, I don't really know their approach, but I don't have a grudge against them.
I don't have the ear of their management either, I simply got a very quick reply both times I asked them a specific question, so I figured this is good customer support.
I don't know what Microsoft product you have in mind, I wasn't aware of any product that could do this, I'd be interested to know more if there were alternatives to reading Chinese text aloud here, not any other language.
I think voice recording / podcasting functions are something else, my interest in the product is simply running a piece of text, as little as a paragraph, any blog or web post, and have it spoken with reasonable fluency, have it repeated at various speeds or with various voices. That clearly is a language learner's perspective, different from a native speaker who may just have a book or some such read aloud on the go.
So it's true that a lot of the products on the Chinese market are aimed at a Chinese audience, domestic and 华侨, but this will undoubtedly change, see the success of ChinesePod and other podcasters, the growing interest in Chinese language education, I hope this translates into sales for the likes of Pleco (not that I'm aware of any direct competitor though ;-) )