steven36 Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 When you think of Microsoft, what product first comes to mind? Windows, you say? How quaint. Yes, you’re probably reading this on a Windows-based PC, but Windows itself matters less and less to Microsoft. Ed Bott recently broke down Microsoft’s latest 10-Q, its quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission. What he found out about how Microsoft is making money these days is very interesting. Do you think that Windows is number one in bringing in the cash? It’s a reasonable assumption. Windows for years was the undisputed cash cow for Microsoft, and the company just rolled out a new version, Windows 10, that has been deemed a great improvement over its immediate predecessor, Windows 8. But the assumption is wrong. The biggest cash generator for Microsoft in the fourth quarter of 2015 was its server and cloud divisions. So Windows must have been number two, right? No, that was gaming. There are a lot more Xboxes out there than you might think, and don’t forget that Microsoft recently bought Mojang, makers of Minecraft. Surely Windows would be at least number three, though. Sorry; the answer is still no. That spot goes to Microsoft Office. Down in fourth place, with just over 10% of Microsoft’s revenue, you’ll finally find Windows. What happened? Well, it’s not as if Windows, despite the failures of first Vista and then Windows 8.x, has fallen to the likes of the Mac or Linux. Windows remains the most popular desktop operating system. What has happened, however, is that the desktop has become less important. The tablet may not have killed off the PC, but it certainly has given it a fever, and smartphones have it throwing up. True, the PC will never really die. Some people, such as me, will always need a real keyboard to get work done. But for other people, it’s another story. Microsoft knows this. For the longest time, Microsoft kept trying — and failing — to get anyone to use Windows Phone. It was desperate to get a foothold in the mobile market, because it knows that the desktop has a limited future. But Microsoft is finally facing the hard truth: Windows Phone is a failure. So the boys from Redmond are embracing Android and iOS. Recently, Microsoft bought Xamarin — a mistake, in my book — so its developers could easily port .Net Framework and C# programs to Android smartphones and iPhones. Microsoft hasn’t been waiting around for this plan to work. Internally, it has been exporting its business-oriented software, including the entire Office suite, to Android. What does this have to with the decline of Windows? Everything. Office is becoming a cloud program, not a desktop program. Those server and cloud numbers leading Microsoft’s profit train? They’re increasingly built on Azure cloud services, not stand-alone Server 2012 sales. You see, Microsoft is well on its way to becoming a cloud and services company and not a desktop company. To quote my longtime writing buddy Preston Gralla, “Microsoft’s future is all about the cloud, so much so that one day Windows may become an afterthought.” I only disagree on one point: His use of the word “may.” Microsoft has done the numbers — Windows revenue down 5% in the last quarter, despite Windows 10, while Microsoft’s cloud division saw its revenue grow by 5%. Azure sales were up 140% year over year. As CEO Satya Nadella said after the quarterly report: “The enterprise cloud opportunity is massive. It’s larger than any market we’ve ever participated in.” Yes, he meant it, and yes, he meant bigger than Windows. This marks a transformation, not just for Microsoft and Windows, but for all of personal computing as well. We’re used to thinking even now of the PC as being computing’s core. It’s not anymore. In 1976, Gary Kildall’s CP/M operating system and the first floppy-drive-based computers shifted computing power from IT departments and mainframes to individual users and PCs. In 2016, we’re not just seeing Windows decline, we’re seeing computing power move from individuals to the mainframe’s successor, the cloud. We’re in for interesting times. The Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haxzion Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 If they don't need windows anymore why do they keep pushing them to consumers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 6 minutes ago, haxzion said: If they don't need windows anymore why do they keep pushing them to consumers? Because its still 10% of Microsoft’s revenue you're talking about company's net worth is $62.8 billion whats 10% of that you do the math. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbleck Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 7 minutes ago, haxzion said: If they don't need windows anymore why do they keep pushing them to consumers? ignore the title... read the content. many articles are big on title but will get u bored or annoyed if u resist till the end of it... and it's 10% with Windows 10 available for free for most. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 28 minutes ago, jbleck said: and it's 10% with Windows 10 available for free for most. Most of Google's products are free they even beat out apple before as the most valuable company in the world before. Being free vs being paid dont have much to do with it anymore . Its about geting people to use there products . And still most Windows users use windows 7. and a lot blocks analytics were Microsoft tires to profit from on Windows 10. They gave windows 10 away free because they failed with selling windows 8 x . They not made real money off windows since years ago . You can buy new pcs with Win 7 pro tell Oct 2016 Quote Microsoft has updated its Windows lifecycle fact sheet to show that the sale of PCs with Windows 7 Professional pre-installed will end on 31 October, 2016. This is a full two years after the sale of Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium, and Ultimate PC came to an end, and four months after the 30 June 2016 end of Windows 8 PC sales. http://betanews.com/2015/11/03/hate-windows-10-you-still-have-a-year-to-buy-a-windows-7-pc/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbleck Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 12 minutes ago, steven36 said: Most of Google's products are free they even beat out apple before as the most valuable company in the world before. Being free vs being paid dont have much to do with it anymore . Its about geting people to use there products . And still most Windows users use windows 7. and a lot blocks analytics were Microsoft tires to profit from on Windows 10 this shit is getting more and more religious... a deity is strong if u believe... if not then u do the math. same goes for stock market and inflated companies... many can go "poof" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 Just now, jbleck said: this shit is getting more and more religious... a deity is strong if u believe... if not then u do the math. same goes for stock market and inflated companies... many can go "poof" Back in the old days when when companies actually stored there profits on shore this would have had mattered but now days they put there profits in banks overseas if the stock market was to crash it would recover and they still have all there profits . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haxzion Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Guys this number can't be right. Only 10% of Microsoft’s revenue? I refuse to believe that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 The only thing windows can do better than other products for home usage is game and Microsoft is trying mess it up by putting console restrictions on it . Watching a video or something would be much more pleasant using Fire TV or a blu-ray player . Only reason i use a computer to watch videos and stuff on a pc is because i dont really have the money to invest in a lot more things. The masses used XP for there most things tell Microsoft forced them off it and it never was good at doing high cpu task. You may cant encode videos and stuff on a phone but you can use you're phone to tell the cloud to do it and do it a 100 times faster than a PC could. Everything is moving to the cloud its much faster . But there all ways be PCs for us that still dont use cloud . Most all uploading is done trough a cloud now days they got servers that can encode the video and put up videos on sites even they can rar it up and you can download it on a phone even and then watch on a TV. People have been using Blu-ray players for years to watch stuff they get off the internet. Having a phone compatible website is a must now days are you want get very many hits . Why would Ed Bolt lie about Microsoft only getting 10% for windows Microsoft loves him they gave him stuff to promote windows before? http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-microsoft-apple-where-does-the-money-come-from/ Quote Server products and cloud services revenue grew 10% in constant currency Azure revenue grew 140% in constant currency with revenue from Azure premium services growing nearly 3x year-over-year Over one third of the Fortune 500 have chosen our Enterprise Mobility solutions, up nearly 3x year-over-year Revenue for Productivity and Business Processes sits at $6.7 billion (down 2 percent), and Office 365 now enjoys 20.6 million subscribers. Personal Computing Revenue is also down, dropping 5 percent to $12.7 billion: Windows OEM revenue declined 5% in constant currency, outperforming the PC market, driven by higher consumer premium and mid-range device mix Surface revenue increased 29% in constant currency driven by the launch of Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book Phone revenue declined 49% in constant currency reflecting our strategy change announced in July 2015 Search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs grew 21% in constant currency with continued benefit from Windows 10 usage Xbox Live monthly active users grew 30% year-over-year to a record 48 million In addition to the decreased interest in Windows, the slight fall in revenue has been attributed to shifts in currency, but the company is understandably pleased with the figures. COO Kevin Turner says: It was a strong holiday season for Microsoft highlighted by Surface and Xbox. Our commercial business executed well as our sales teams and partners helped customers realize the value of Microsoft’s cloud technologies across Azure, Office 365 and CRM Online. http://betanews.com/2016/01/28/microsofts-q2-earnings-are-hugely-impressive-buoyed-by-cloud-revenue/ https://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/PressReleaseAndWebcast/FY16/Q2/default.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rastus_BoJangles_Johnson Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 deleted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 4 minutes ago, Rastus_BoJangles_Johnson said: Then they wont mind me using Daz' loader. I dont think they really care bro but they want tell you that , but Microsoft never goes after no one unless they activate windows like a 1000 times using the same ip.and even then they were US ips they went after lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Thats a misleading title its obviously not just ten percent the math is inaccurate. The article author Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is posting his opinion not facts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
straycat19 Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 If you have access to some actual numbers you would see that they don't make much off Windows or Office as far as that goes. As an example, a situation I have personal knowledge of is a University. It has 5000 employees and 12000 students. The annual cost for Microsoft Licensing is $324,000. That allows the installation of Windows on every computer owned by the University, its students, and employee home computers. Along with that they also get any version of Office they want and access to any other Microsoft program, such as Visual Studio. Anyone with a university login can access the software page, download the installation file or ISO and install it and the software activates with the embedded key. No limit on how many installs or downloads an authorized person can make. Since every employee has a desktop and laptop and some in IT have many more that would put the number around 11,000 plus students (estimate 1.5 computers per student) 18,000, plus home installs (some have more than 1 computer) 7500, which is 36,500 installs, which if figure that those also have office on them in one version or another that is 73,000 licenses. then the cost is $4.43 per license and is less if you figure all the other software that is used from Microsoft. And, until a recent licensing change with Windows 10, the previous versions were lifetime licenses, but with Windows 10 there is a system in place that once a student graduates or drops out his system is deactivated and he has to revert to his OEM licensed software or purchase a full license. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karlston Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Ed's logic is that because Microsoft don't make very much from Windows, they don't need it, or they're going to continue letting Windows earn them very little. Sounds like Irish logic to me. Surely that's an incentive for them to pull their finger out and try to make more from Windows? If it's such a poor income earner for Microsoft, why does Ed think Microsoft is going to such extreme lengths to nag/bully/force/bribe/trick users into "upgrading" to Windows 10? Let's see now... currently 200+ million Windows 10 devices... trying for 1 billion Windows 10 devices... at a measly $5/month subscription... currently that's $1+ billion/month, $12+ billion/year... trying for $5 billion/month, $60 billion/year. NOW they're making plenty of money from Windows, Ed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhanche Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Windows 10 is just glorified spyware, and is being aggressively pushed to users of Win7/8 because MS is making big money giving the data they steal from their users to NSA. The CISA bill was recently passed that makes it legel for US companies to pass on the information they steal from their users to the US government/NSA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted March 8, 2016 Author Share Posted March 8, 2016 12 hours ago, Karlston said: Ed's logic is that because Microsoft don't make very much from Windows, they don't need it, or they're going to continue letting Windows earn them very little. Sounds like Irish logic to me. Surely that's an incentive for them to pull their finger out and try to make more from Windows? If it's such a poor income earner for Microsoft, why does Ed think Microsoft is going to such extreme lengths to nag/bully/force/bribe/trick users into "upgrading" to Windows 10? Let's see now... currently 200+ million Windows 10 devices... trying for 1 billion Windows 10 devices... at a measly $5/month subscription... currently that's $1+ billion/month, $12+ billion/year... trying for $5 billion/month, $60 billion/year. NOW they're making plenty of money from Windows, Ed! Even Steve Jobs knew when he was alive and worked for apple that things he made will one day fade in the sunset he was a true visioneer unlike Gates . After awhile old tech dies and is replaced with the new . And Microsoft is no longer ran by Gates for many years . In the teach business if you cant come up new things you're company will never grow. Seems Microsoft wised up to this . Just because you're depended on something dont mean a company who makes the product you're depended on is really depended on it to earn a profit . You take Ubuntu for example every year Canonical The company behind Ubuntu loses a ton on it but they still make it and people claim Canonical dont give nothing to the Linux community but the truth is if they was all about profit they would not make Ubuntu. People just dont want to accept the fact that after so many years all tech starts to die off and Ed Bolt or Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols didn't write the numbers . Microsoft auditors did I posted the link from Micosoft were says they only earned 12.7 billion form windows and it was down 5% and it is down 4th on the list for there money makers like Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols said. https://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/PressReleaseAndWebcast/FY16/Q2/default.aspx The fact is if Microsoft just depended on windows it only would be worth a fraction of what its worth now they evolved with the times . In the tech business its evolve or die. Come back in 2020 4 years from now and see if a old tech has boomed again its never has before so why would it now ? I truly think Windows 7 will be the last real money maker O/S for desktop . Its big a difference in how many people use something they dont buy but every 10 years or pirate and never buy it at all than what a company with tons of products and getting new ones every day earns over all. Lets break out the Black and White TVs , VCRs and Atari 2600s again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namek Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 If Microsoft loosed Windows on everyone system. They would also loose Office. Cloud also sucks. Companies i worked with don't rely on anyone's cloud, they use their own if they need it. It's true that Microsoft doesn't make much money from Windows, but it's because they've ruined it and Windows never was really great, so it can only decline all profits if any. Microsoft use others inventions to make profit and they are ruining them. I wish i could say anything good about MS, but can't really. If it's the future, i don't want to live in it. Canonical doesn't make profits from Ubuntu for very logical reasons. Ubuntu - free. Ubuntu - sucks. There are a lot of better distributions than Ubuntu, but it's most well known. Nothing will replace my old Desktop. It's most comfortable, reliable power house, just not mobile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 There are a number of problems with that first windows ten is not old tech and two saying windows is not a money maker then saying its a real money maker is a contradiction. If windows truly wasnt a money maker they wouldnt be pushing windows ten so hard and wanting three billion devices in three years. I wouldnt trust there cloud and there office is ripping users off with subscription based payments. They do depend on windows if they lost there windows customers they would get hurt worse then you think. You cant use office two thousand thirteen without windows with office three sixty five they changed that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted March 9, 2016 Author Share Posted March 9, 2016 They plan to make a lot money on devices they put windows on. They could care less about the old fashion Windows Desktop ,Laptop If they cared about the PC industry as a whole they would never gave windows away for free witch postponed many from buying new computers . Microsoft is starting to become like Apple and make its own devices for its own O/S Microsoft is long past just being a software maker anymore. They make Xbox and Surface Pro with windows 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 They do care about the pc industry they did give windows ten for free with restrictions one you have to have windows seven or windows eight two if your specs change to much then you lose your free copy (unless someone has tested this and called microsoft and got it activated again I havent heard any user test this Ill test it myself if I can get my sh*t together and get windows ten installed on a copy of windows seven professional I have a extra copy of). If they didnt care about the windows desktop they wouldnt keep it and would get rid of it for redstone they wouldnt have created tablet mode on windows ten. They dont care about the windows control panel (that pisses me off I want to keep it). It's ok Im sure someone is going to modify a copy of windows ten or create a program that is going to bring control panel back like they did with start menu with all the programs you can use on windows eight to get the start menu back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted March 9, 2016 Author Share Posted March 9, 2016 When there free windows 10 messes up it dont mean there going to go out and buy a new Laptop or Desktop chances are very slim that they will , the latest fad is 2-in-1 if they have money. And people who dont have money will just put there old o/s in or pirate windows or some will even use a free O/S like Linux . You can still do a lot with a old PC with HW change and not buy a PC. and even if they did fork out a 100 or 200 dollars to Microsoft to buy windows no one but M$ would see the money. Some one should start a poll on this site about Windows 10 , The people who took the free upgrade legit VS The people who pirated windows to get it vs the people who bought it . You would find out that most didn't buy it at all. This is news site that leans heavy on Warez most didn't ever buy Windows 8.1 that used it ether on here and Many Many Windows 7 boxes are just old Vista boxes activated with pirated windows 7 and there upgrading them to Windows 10. Back when windows 7 was new here and over at the other forum i was at there were massive topics on how to pirate it with every thing you needed and if you had a good friend they could give you legit Windows 7 keys . I was even reading a blog post on how to upgrade XP to windows 10 good luck with that on some old XP boxes even a lower resource Linux Distro want work good with that old of HW. I know how most on this site are there install addicts its going to get very boring for most if they never make a windows 11 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.