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Netbooks Take a Bite Out of Windows Profits
twitter writes "Analysts at Bloomberg noticed the tumble in Microsoft's traditional software sales last quarter and blamed it on netbooks: 'The devices, which usually cost less than $500, are the fastest-growing segment of the personal-computer industry — a trend that's eating into Microsoft's revenue. Windows sales fell short of forecasts last quarter and the company cut growth projections for the year, citing the lower revenue it gets from netbooks. When makers of the computers do use Windows, they typically opt for older and cheaper versions of the software. Equipping Linux on a computer costs about $5, compared with $40 to $50 for XP and about $100 for Vista, according to estimates by Jenny Lai, a Taipei-based analyst at CLSA Ltd.' This is why MS declared war on the segment last year and palm top computers in previous years. While they may have successfully tamed the Asus EEE PC, they can't hold back everyone who wants to make a buck on cheap hardware and free software. Analysts have predicted the fall of MS's business model when computers break below $250/unit retail. We are there now, and it has shown in the bottom line."
They never followed the standards before, why would they start now?
While twitter may be a PITA,and his talking to himself with sockpuppets is just....well,it is pretty obvious the guy needs mental help, this does point out something I've been saying for a long time: MSFT is pricing their goods WAY too freaking high! $99 for XP Home? $199 for XP Pro? Is there ANYBODY else who charges THAT much for software THAT old? The MSRP retail hasn't changed since it came out in '01! And then they total crazy BS of Vista,with its,what? Six different versions? And the cheapest one is STILL $100? Totally freaking crazy.
If MSFT doesn't want to get their asses handed to them they better learn to accept normal profit margins on their software. Not to mention giving the public what they want. I mean,have you EVER heard of any other company killing off a product that was still selling quite well after 7 years? Most companies would kill for a product like that!
Mark my words: The netbooks and nettops are going to take up a serious chunk of the lowend. Because with even a half ass GPU added(so they can play High Def vids) they will do everything your average Joe wants to do with his machine. Last year when I walked through the college I saw full size laptops everywhere. Now I see very few full size while everyone has a netbook sitting on their lap. If MSFT doesn't learn to take a normal profit like everyone else then the custom Linux distros like the EEE Xandros(which is the most popular model at the local college) are going to seriously kick their ass. After all,they have a couple of years old desktop at home to run their Windows software on,so why should they pay so much more just for an old MSFT product?
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
As Mark Shuttleworth said, "I've heard creditable reports of Microsoft offering XP at no cost to OEMs."
http://rocknerd.co.uk
I have not confused cores with threads. Cores are simply individual CPUs integrated on to a chip. AMD and intel are currently up to 4 on a chip. Sun does 8 on a chip (with 8 thread contexts per core).
Solaris, Linux and many other unixes have been scaling (not merely being just "aware of") many more that 256 CPUs (call them cores) for well over a decade.
Do some googling. Solaris especially and linux scale almost linearly to thousands of CPUs per system today. To say that Windows' performance is embarrassing in this respect would be an understatement.
Stick Men
Uh,you DO know that MSFT counts a downgrade as Vista,right? Or that places like Tigerdirect are bragging on new machines "With XP Pro Downgrade Preinstalled!"? As a guy running a little PC shop in AR,and who has worked in repair shops off and on since the days of Win3.11 I can tell you I have NEVER in all my years seen so many folks coming in just to say "Please get this damned thing off my PC and put on XP!". And I mean never.
Even with the suck of WinME we didn't have to deal with as many folks wanting to downgrade to an older MSFT OS as I have had to with Vista. I even know a guy who chunked his laptop out his 3rd story window into the dumpster below and bought a Mac that afternoon because Vista had pissed him off one too many times. And I have gotten to the point that I tell folks $250 when they ask me to switch their sub-$600 laptop from Vista to XP just because I'm sick and tired of trying to find drivers for those damned cheap crappy Vista laptops. And thanks to MSFT keeping the price high on retail copies I really wouldn't be surprised if most of those laptops I refuse to touch probably end up with hot XP put on them by someone else.
Personally I don't care what they do with them because I'm staying busy with all the new PCs folks want built so they can have a new XP machine. You know it is bad when folks go out of their way to have someone like me build them a PC for higher cost than they would pay Dell simply because they don't want the latest from MSFT. So whether the perception from the public is based on hearsay or not,I can tell you that I couldn't give away a copy of Vista if I tried. Folks just don't want it around here. And it never fails that when folks come into the shop complaining about how much they hate their new Dell,Compaq,HP,etc and need it fixed I say "You got Vista'd,didn't you!" and they say "Yeah,I got Vista'd real hard and I HATE IT! Please make this damn thing go away!". So at least from my perspective MSFT's stupidity is my gain.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.