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Microsoft Posts First Quarterly Loss Ever
HangingChad writes "Microsoft's announcement of a late October release date for Windows 8 was eclipsed by its earnings report, in which the computer giant posted its first-ever quarterly loss since going public in 1986. The loss stems from Microsoft's continued struggles with the online services division."
NSFW
You're joking, right? Last fiscal year they had net income of $23 billion and the previous quarter they made they made about $21 billion in revenue and net income of $6.6 billion.
I probably shouldn't respond to an AC... but oh well.
I actually read TFA and it said they lost $6B due to a bad acquisition and that's why the quarterly profits were where they were. I made a deduction from that article that it isn't going to affect Microsoft in any way really and posted a reply to the 'finally they're going down' comment.
I'm not what you'd call a fan of Microsoft in any way, I use their products because I have to.
Basically what happened is a bug hit Microsoft's windshield , and Microsoft will flick on the wipers and be on their merry way.
That isn't really an apples-to-oranges comparison though. The desktop/laptop markets are different enough from the phone/tablet ones at the current time that you probably shouldn't compare Windows 7 against iOS and Android.
Also iOS and Android are growing fast due to new kit the people previously didn't own - they are not replacing Windows in most cases. MS's install base is rather impressive compared to iOS and Android so even at their current growth rate (which they can't maintain indefinitely - there will be a saturation point in the market somewhere) it'll be much time before they come close to eclipsing Windows.
I'm happy for you to put Microsoft down, but I recommend not using obviously flawed statistics as it just looks like desperation (when such desperation is probably not required).