Microsoft's stock is crashing today after the company delivered a middling earnings report and gloomy guidance for the rest of the year. Several analysts downgraded the stock, and it's down more than 9% this morning.
Pretty harsh, considering the company wowed reporters (including me) just last week with its Windows 10 event and the introduction of an augmented reality headset called HoloLens.
So what's going on here?
In August 2013, Steve Ballmer announced his retirement as Microsoft's CEO. Investors were so frustrated with Ballmer's missteps, like whiffing on mobile and spending billions trying to beat Google in search advertising, that they were delighted. The stock is up almost 50% since Ballmer said he was leaving.
Satya Nadella is different from Ballmer. He's technical, not a sales guy. He's got a long-term vision for where tech is going and how Microsoft might capitalize on it. He doesn't seem like he'd ever take ill-advised potshots against new competitive products, like Ballmer did with the iPhone.
But despite Nadella's new tone and some of the changes he's made, Microsoft's business is basically still in the same place it was under Steve Ballmer:
Most of Microsoft's money comes from big businesses, which are starting to move to lower-margin cloud services. Steve Ballmer's greatest - and often dismissed - achievement was turning Microsoft into a serious enterprise player. In the last quarter, Microsoft got about two-thirds of its gross profit and half its revenue ($10.8 billion and $13.2 billion respectively) from its "commercial" segment - selling to businesses. But revenue from traditional software licensing was down 2%, and Microsoft warned of particularly weak performance in Japan. The big problem: cloud services book less revenue up front than traditional one-time software sales, and have higher ongoing costs. That means as Microsoft's core customers move from buying software to buying online services, Microsoft will face revenue and margin pressure in its most important segment.
Windows isn't what it used to be. Only 15% of the world's devices now access the Internet using Windows, down from more than 90% a decade ago. This is showing up in various ways: for instance, Windows revenue was down 13% from last year; the end of Windows XP support last year drove a lot of businesses to upgrade, but with that deadline passed, there's less reason to buy new PCs with Windows. Windows 10 will undo some of the missteps of Windows 8, and will be much more appealing to business users. But despite Nadella's new mantra that he wants people to "love" Windows, it's never going to dominate the world like it once did. It will be one of several big important operating systems, not the only one that matters. The collapse of a monopoly business is a long-term margin squeezer.
Microsoft is nowhere in mobile. After more than four years on the market, Windows Phone has less than 3 percent market share worldwide, and its share has been dropping, not rising. Most developers ignore it. Windows 10 is supposed to change that - it'll be easier for developers to take their Windows applications and revamp them for Windows on phones. But there's very little reason for all but the most devoted Windows developers to do any extra work to target a mobile platform that people aren't buying. Most developers have limited time! They're already busy keeping up with all the changes to Android and iOS.
Developers no longer need Microsoft. Related to the first point, because Windows no longer dominates, developers no longer have to build for Windows first. They can build for iOS, Android, or the web, and reach more people. Nadella and Microsoft seem to be laying out a long-term vision where Microsoft's platform will not only support Windows devices, but also tie back to cloud services and enable a whole bunch of new types of interactions, like augmented reality (Windows 10 will include a
Slashdot Mirror
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... should fix it
They seems to be replicating BING business strategy
Do away with INSURANCE; It'll be cheaper;
You made my day.
Govt can CONFISCATE whether it's public/private/personal Cloud.
Here is the clue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...
The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.
Psychopaths do not fear punishment;
Caste system created millions of Psychopaths in India;
http://www.sciencedaily.com/re...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...
Unlike Capitalism, Globalization is Zero-sum WITHOUT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income
I'd blame it on DOPAMINE
We Have Petitioned President Obama To Impose Tax On IBM Revenues, Not Profits;
https://petitions.whitehouse.g...
Listen carefully to your body. I'll tell you what's missing.
I think the risk is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E... VERSUS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
We Have Petitioned President Obama To Impose Tax On Corporate Revenues, Not Profits;
https://petitions.whitehouse.g...
Victim is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
Culprit is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
and
http://www.firstpost.com/livin...
America covertly does it and China overtly does it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrocurrency#Currencies_used_to_trade_oil
I believe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income should fix it
Microsoft's stock is crashing today after the company delivered a middling earnings report and gloomy guidance for the rest of the year. Several analysts downgraded the stock, and it's down more than 9% this morning.
Pretty harsh, considering the company wowed reporters (including me) just last week with its Windows 10 event and the introduction of an augmented reality headset called HoloLens.
So what's going on here?
In August 2013, Steve Ballmer announced his retirement as Microsoft's CEO. Investors were so frustrated with Ballmer's missteps, like whiffing on mobile and spending billions trying to beat Google in search advertising, that they were delighted. The stock is up almost 50% since Ballmer said he was leaving.
Satya Nadella is different from Ballmer. He's technical, not a sales guy. He's got a long-term vision for where tech is going and how Microsoft might capitalize on it. He doesn't seem like he'd ever take ill-advised potshots against new competitive products, like Ballmer did with the iPhone.
But despite Nadella's new tone and some of the changes he's made, Microsoft's business is basically still in the same place it was under Steve Ballmer:
Most of Microsoft's money comes from big businesses, which are starting to move to lower-margin cloud services. Steve Ballmer's greatest - and often dismissed - achievement was turning Microsoft into a serious enterprise player. In the last quarter, Microsoft got about two-thirds of its gross profit and half its revenue ($10.8 billion and $13.2 billion respectively) from its "commercial" segment - selling to businesses. But revenue from traditional software licensing was down 2%, and Microsoft warned of particularly weak performance in Japan. The big problem: cloud services book less revenue up front than traditional one-time software sales, and have higher ongoing costs. That means as Microsoft's core customers move from buying software to buying online services, Microsoft will face revenue and margin pressure in its most important segment.
Windows isn't what it used to be. Only 15% of the world's devices now access the Internet using Windows, down from more than 90% a decade ago. This is showing up in various ways: for instance, Windows revenue was down 13% from last year; the end of Windows XP support last year drove a lot of businesses to upgrade, but with that deadline passed, there's less reason to buy new PCs with Windows. Windows 10 will undo some of the missteps of Windows 8, and will be much more appealing to business users. But despite Nadella's new mantra that he wants people to "love" Windows, it's never going to dominate the world like it once did. It will be one of several big important operating systems, not the only one that matters. The collapse of a monopoly business is a long-term margin squeezer.
Microsoft is nowhere in mobile. After more than four years on the market, Windows Phone has less than 3 percent market share worldwide, and its share has been dropping, not rising. Most developers ignore it. Windows 10 is supposed to change that - it'll be easier for developers to take their Windows applications and revamp them for Windows on phones. But there's very little reason for all but the most devoted Windows developers to do any extra work to target a mobile platform that people aren't buying. Most developers have limited time! They're already busy keeping up with all the changes to Android and iOS.
Developers no longer need Microsoft. Related to the first point, because Windows no longer dominates, developers no longer have to build for Windows first. They can build for iOS, Android, or the web, and reach more people. Nadella and Microsoft seem to be laying out a long-term vision where Microsoft's platform will not only support Windows devices, but also tie back to cloud services and enable a whole bunch of new types of interactions, like augmented reality (Windows 10 will include a
https://petitions.whitehouse.g...
http://effectivehealthcare.ahr...
https://petitions.whitehouse.g...
Impose Tax On Corporate Revenues, Not Profits And See The Result;
https://petitions.whitehouse.g...
Give them to Railway drivers
Internet is HONEYPOT.
http://www.chacha.com/gallery/...