Slashdot Mirror
MS Sales Growth Limited by Delays in Windows
Alien54 writes "As reported by Bloomberg, Microsoft Corp.'s sales growth will probably drop below 10 percent next fiscal year for the first time because delays in the next version of Windows have created the longest-ever lag between releases of the software. They go into some detail on how the lack of new products also hurts multiyear subscriptions, because clients that buy the contracts expecting to get product upgrades may not renew if new items won't be available for a while. Didn't someone say once that they have enough reserves to last 5 years without any sales at all?"
Microsoft's cash reserves as of Dec 31, were 53 billion dollars. To put that into perspective, it is enough to "fund NASA for a year, assemble a fleet of 100 Boeing 747s, and buy every person in Seattle a 2004 Subaru Outback -- with a few billion left over for incidentals."
Math:
I am posting anonymously for obvious reasons.
I can safely tell you to expect a "SE" version of Windows XP by December of this year. It will have some enhancements and adjustments, plus it will also have a new media center-like program included.
Expect an announcement in the next two or three weeks.
The Google Zeitgeist now puts it at 22%.
A bit further down the page, it looks like Mozilla is slowly gaining market share. Yay
Information: "I want to be anthropomorphized"
The price of Windows has very little to do with the cost of developing it. The OS division has annual profits of about 85%. And of that last 15%, most of it is marketing, support, and manufacturing, not r&d. They are already charging what the market will bear, and since the operating system is a natural monopoly this is far beyond the production cost.
Worst. Metaphor. Ever.
Actually, it was okay through paragraph 3, where I should have stopped reading.
I want those extra two minutes of my life back, please.
Microsoft is currently threatened by a barrage of minor issues which add up to something serious when combined.
.Net and reasonably fast, preventing their newest system from completely stealing Sun's thunder. Once again, damaging credibility.
.Net, the X-Box, and WMA with DRM. MS-Office and Windows are still their biggest products, but they can't increase in sales very much.
.Net is that, as it has very much promise and says something about how much total change will come with their next OS release. Also, .Net can compete with Java somewhat, helping them in a buzzword cattle.
1) Lack of new products prevents sales and damages customer loyalty.
2) Severe worms damage customer loyalty, increase costs in maintenance and customer service.
3) Competing products getting stronger with OS-X on the desktop on Linux both embedded and in servers cut into what sales they would have.
4) Strong competition generates press for opposing sides, making them appear less innovative than they want to.
5) Constant lawsuits present a steady sapping on resources.
6) Constant web-popups make IE seem sad in comparison to Firebird and Opera, as well as a lack of features being painful. This detracts from their general appearance and aids competitors.
7) More people are satisfied with their current systems and are just refusing to upgrade.
8) Piracy of windows is staying widespread despite product registration, and the lack of legitimate copies is adding to the virus issue.
9) The next version of Java is looking stronger than
10) Although X-Box started gaining on the other consoles finally, all the competing systems are starting to push even more for handhelds, and likely integration between the two, resulting in an aspect where the X-Box will be lacking.
11) The G5 chip is the first time that a Macintosh processor has been seen as competitive with the top Intel chips, further undermining their superiority.
12) The iTunes music store is still unrivaled, re-solidifying Macintosh as the OS for multimedia, along with programs such as FinalCut and Garage Band and products such as the iPod.
13) Governments are starting to strongly consider open standard, raising the lobbying costs for Microsoft and potentially requiring some new file formats to be supported by them.
14) OpenOffice.org shows a technically capable alternative to MS-Office. Where MS-Office was once clearly on top it may have to start fighting for its place soon. Also, the latest version of MS-Office, MS-Office XP, doesn't run on as old of hardware as OpenOffice.org, so many people with old Windows systems have an alternative upgrade line, as opposed to being locked into upgrading computer, OS, and office suite all at once.
15) Many large contracts for Linux have been seen recently, harming Microsoft's public image more.
There is other stuff, but I can't think of it at the moment.
I would say their strongest pieces at the moment for increasing sales are
Their OS is just not going to be ready before 2006, so it cannot stimulate a recovery. What they need is something to make it worth the wait.
MS-Office was traditionally their big seller to tie people into their systems, but it's basically finished up. They have very little room to improve. Most of the improvements that could be of value cost more to develop than they will bring in sales (better type-setting control and similar advanced features) or will have a huge risk of damaging their current monopoly (a new office suite can have a radically new UI and be easier to use without losing customers).
X-Box, on the other hand, is totally up-and-coming and is technically superior to the competition. If they can get the X-Box2 out in a timely manner, they can get press about being innovative, they can get a rush of sales from nowhere, and they can stimulate their gaming division, giving them a third strong arm to thei
I can't find any solid evidence for a decline.
Microsoft Sells 210 Million Copies of Windows XP The number mostly based on new OEM system installs, currently running about 10 million a month, up from 9 million a month last July. Figure in corporate licensing, academic distributions, etc., and the number of legit, licensed, XP installs alone must be over 300-350 million.
The Google Zeitgeist tells much the same story, 90% all queries to Google come from systems running Windows, 47% from systems running XP. Not a bad showing for a three year old O/S.
Despite all their service packs and hot fixes, they never really seem to FIX anything. Besides 'Doze itself there are a bunch of MS products I've used over the years that had serious problems. Not necessarily "bugs" per se, but features that didn't work as advertised or missing functionality in general.
Case in point: VS.NET 2003 has several annoying bugs and problems that have been the subject of hundreds if not thousands of complaints. It's been out a while now and there's no service pack in sight. Maybe half a dozen features from VS6 were "removed". Sure, they added a hundred, but those 6 were commonly used and their disappearance causes angst and frustration on a daily basis. What's the MS response to all this? "Wait for Whidbey."
Right. That's just been delayed again. And they want you to pay for it, of course. Why can't they just friggin' fix the garbage they've put out already? There are countless similar examples over the years. Access, Word, SQL Server... you name it and it has had bugs at some point that MS refused to fix. They say to wait for the next version, but that doesn't address the core issue that you have a piece of expensive software you already paid good money for and they refuse to fix it. They refuse responsibility to make it work right. Perhaps, at some point, software should have warranties if it costs beyond $X. I'm sick and tired of paying for MS software that they essentially sell "as is".
This doesn't even begin to address the notorious problems they have with security. I think they're related. It goes to their culture of never having to fix anything. The recent years of being forced to patch holes and vulnerabilities goes against everything in their culture. That's why they can never get the security fixes "right".
Oh heck, my original rationing was correct.
That was for the OEM releases. However for the "full boxed" software, i got the following prices from "Harvey Norman" which are the bastard son equivalent of Fry's & Walmart over here in Australia. Cut & pasted from their website.
microsoft ms windows xp home edition $459.95
microsoft ms windows xp home edition upg $239.95
microsoft ms windows xp professional A$669.96
microsoft ms windows xp professional upg $459.95
So in some way i was right about the prices spiraling up (at least for general consumer releases of software, hell it cost $190 for NT4 Workstation back in the day!!
Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know when your gonna get food poisoning.
LOL, don't go shopping for Microstation v8, ArcGIS/IM/FM/SDE, AutoCAD, or any professional 3D Animation/Modeling program. $250-$300 is a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of these programs. No, Edu. versions don't count.
Jaysyn
There is a war going on for your mind.
... only live in their own little worlds, with NYC or LA or DC rent structures guiding what they think things should cost, flying everywhere, lunches that cost what a working family uses at the grocery store for food for a week.
And etc rantage there.
quote-age here:
``The overwhelming majority of PCs are not running Windows XP and the opportunity is quite good for the Windows XP product wave ahead of Longhorn,'' Connors said in an interview in April.
DUH, earth to rich guys, no it's NOT Mr. Connors, the overwhelming number of people are using 98, have gotten used to it, their hardware they paid MOST serious folding money for just a few short years ago still works,they get everything done they want to do, And there's *little to no reason* for them to get EITHER a new computer or a new operating system. Most folks could get by quite handily dropping 50$ on a new stick of ram, good to go for several more years, if they even feel like it, and people are actually getting hip to firewalls, ad aware action, etc. It's slowly turning around, but folks are learning and they aren't as easy to fake out with blinkenlights stuff any longer.
Time for the hardware and for-sale OS guys to buy a clue, they can use some of their dot bomb stocks as "money" for that, there used to be a decade called the 90s, they all made tons of cash, OBSCENE huge amounts, now it's back to the real world. They will sell SOME, they will make SOME money, they won't *make* (sell ridiculous cheap to make 10 cents copies of stuff for huge $$$) money like the 90s, because people are now over that period of "irrational exuberence". Same like the movie and music guys need to bingo to that, people are just buying less of "stuff" now, especially stuff that is still more or less working OK, they are concentrating on the essentials, like paying the mortgage, the car off, kids in school, paying down CCs down that are already maxed, fed state and insane property taxes, etc. In fact, I can't think of a single person I know who is "clamoring" for some new windows OS, either XP or son of XP. People, when and if they get a new box, expect some OS on it, that's it for the most part. That's when they upgrade, and frankly, even the dullest is hip to whatever you buy brand new next week is borken and needs to be patched, so they figger, why spend an extra 100 clams just to download more patches starting the next week. They are already doing that now. Now from win 3.1 to 95 and then to 98 you got a lot of folks switched, since 98, it has slowed way way down, for the reasons I stated. They see "upgrading" as getting snookered now more than GEE WHIZZ, JISS CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT THAT NEW XPTURBO STUFF, GOT TO GET ME SOME RIGHT NOW!
Ain't happening, and them rich dudes with degrees and status and hanging out with all the other rich dudes can't figger it out why not..
Now, this isn't slashdot readers, or *some* businesses, but for everyone else, there is NO need, sales will stay slumped. And all the rich analysts and marketing folks trying to resurrect that gravy train just will not get it that spending another grand (whatever, I am ranting) for a new box and OS is not all that vital to people to whom that represents a real important level of "spare" cash to come up with, to do *exactly* what in essence they are already doing. If a new box and OS represented only like 25$ to joe paycheck, sure, they would go buy a new one. It's all relative.
The future 5 to 10 years down the road now- is free software and real cheap hardware,almost throw away when it's broken hardware, and THAT'S IT, time for them boys to come up with a new business plan soon, hanging on to the 90s won't cut it for too many more years.