Vista's OK. But Microsoft May Not Be

[Nina DiBoy]

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/04/25/vista-microsoft-earnings-tech-cx_bc_0426microsoft.html

Burlingame, Calif. -

It's old news that Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista,
is underwhelming. Oh, and late, bloated and buggy. What is news is that
this might actually be a problem for Microsoft Chief Executive Steve
Ballmer and crew.

Not that this is going to stop Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people
), in the near-term, from doing what monopolies do: making big piles of
money. Microsoft will post third-quarter earnings after the market
closes, and analysts expect to see net income of $4.5 billion, or 46
cents a share, up from $3.3 billion, or 29 cents a share for the same
period a year earlier, thanks to the January release of Vista. Wall
Street expects that sales will rise to $13.9 billion from $10.9 billion.

So rather than concentrating on Microsoft's numbers Wednesday afternoon,
pay attention to what the company says about Vista's prospects over its
next fiscal year. It better be good: The company's shares have been flat
for the past five years as it repeatedly delayed the release of Vista,
originally slated for launch in 2003.

Meanwhile longtime rival Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) hit a
gold mine in digital music, and search engine Google (nasdaq: GOOG -
news - people ) evolved into a new threat as it moved from upstart to
online goliath. Microsoft's Xbox console has made life difficult for
Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ), but the money-losing business can't
match Apple's iPod profit spigot.

The traditional fix for Microsoft, of course, has been to use its
ubiquity on the desktop to open up other markets, from Web browsers to
office productivity software. But now it's unclear how that strength on
the desktop will translate into an edge in online advertising, digital
media and Web-based business applications.

And just months after its release, Vista is already looking stale. While
Microsoft fiddled with Vista, competitors such as Apple, Sun
Microsystems (nasdaq: SUNW - news - people ) and Red Hat (nyse: RHT -
news - people ) kept cranking out release after release of their
alternative operating systems.

Ballmer, moreover, soft-peddled Vista's prospects earlier this year.
This may be more than just Microsoft acting coy on all things financial,
as it usually does. PC giant Dell (nasdaq: DELL - news - people ), which
has always loyally jammed Microsoft's latest software into its PCs,
announced earlier this month it will start selling Microsoft's old
operating system, Windows XP, once more.

Dell's announcement aside, Vista will dominate the desktop, of course.
But the desktop has always been the place from which Microsoft can get a
grip on the rest of the computing world. The question: If that strength
has turned into a soft spot, then what?

--
Priceless quotes in m.p.w.vista.general group:
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/kick.html

Most recent idiotic quote added to KICK (Klassic Idiotic Caption Kooks):
"It would be nice if there was a check to see if you were running an
activated/validated version of Windows before you were allowed to post
in any of these news groups. If you're not activated/validated your post
automatically gets deleted.
That would get rid of the Linsux Luzzzzzzzzers once and for all."

"Good poets borrow; great poets steal."
- T. S. Eliot

 

[Bill Yanaire]

You and I will be in Assisted Care Living by the Time MicroSquish isn't on
the Merry-Go-Round any more !

 

[Frank]

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/04/25/vista-microsoft-earnings-tech-cx_bc_0426microsoft.html


Burlingame, Calif. -

It's old news that Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista,
is underwhelming. Oh, and late, bloated and buggy. What is news is that
this might actually be a problem for Microsoft Chief Executive Steve
Ballmer and crew.

Not that this is going to stop Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people
), in the near-term, from doing what monopolies do: making big piles of
money. Microsoft will post third-quarter earnings after the market
closes, and analysts expect to see net income of $4.5 billion, or 46
cents a share, up from $3.3 billion, or 29 cents a share for the same
period a year earlier, thanks to the January release of Vista. Wall
Street expects that sales will rise to $13.9 billion from $10.9 billion.

So rather than concentrating on Microsoft's numbers Wednesday afternoon,
pay attention to what the company says about Vista's prospects over its
next fiscal year. It better be good: The company's shares have been flat
for the past five years as it repeatedly delayed the release of Vista,
originally slated for launch in 2003.

Meanwhile longtime rival Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) hit a
gold mine in digital music, and search engine Google (nasdaq: GOOG -
news - people ) evolved into a new threat as it moved from upstart to
online goliath. Microsoft's Xbox console has made life difficult for
Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ), but the money-losing business can't
match Apple's iPod profit spigot.

The traditional fix for Microsoft, of course, has been to use its
ubiquity on the desktop to open up other markets, from Web browsers to
office productivity software. But now it's unclear how that strength on
the desktop will translate into an edge in online advertising, digital
media and Web-based business applications.

And just months after its release, Vista is already looking stale. While
Microsoft fiddled with Vista, competitors such as Apple, Sun
Microsystems (nasdaq: SUNW - news - people ) and Red Hat (nyse: RHT -
news - people ) kept cranking out release after release of their
alternative operating systems.

Ballmer, moreover, soft-peddled Vista's prospects earlier this year.
This may be more than just Microsoft acting coy on all things financial,
as it usually does. PC giant Dell (nasdaq: DELL - news - people ), which
has always loyally jammed Microsoft's latest software into its PCs,
announced earlier this month it will start selling Microsoft's old
operating system, Windows XP, once more.

Dell's announcement aside, Vista will dominate the desktop, of course.
But the desktop has always been the place from which Microsoft can get a
grip on the rest of the computing world. The question: If that strength
has turned into a soft spot, then what?

Thank you for posting that fine article. I'll be sure and tell Bill next
time I see him that the death knell's are approaching.
I'm sure he'll be thank full as all get out.
Frank

 

[Justin]

How is MS not ok?

"Vista will dominate the desktop"
"sales will rise to $13.9 billion from $10.9 billion"
"net income of $4.5 billion, or 46 cents a share, up from $3.3 billion"

Plus, another article in this NG posted earlier claims MS' profit is on the
rise.

 

[Bill Yanaire]

I think she just wants us all to get our panties all in a bunch

 

[Stephan Rose]

You and I will be in Assisted Care Living by the Time MicroSquish isn't on
the Merry-Go-Round any more !

As far as I am concerned, 2 of MS' major products (Windows, Office) have
both reached a point in time where getting people to buy new versions is
going to get more and more difficult. Creating reasons to ugprade is going
to get more and more difficult. As far as I am concerned, Office already
dead ended back in 2003 if not even earlier. The only significant change I
know about between 2003 and 2007 is the UI!

Same goes for Vista. It took em 7 years to get from XP to Vista. If it took
them that long to add this few features to their OS. How long is it going
to take for the next one? How much more can they add and improve? How many
more reasons can they give users to spend money on yet another version?

There are far fewer reasons to switch from XP to Vista than there ever have
been reasons to switch from any prior version of windows to XP. There even
are some reasons NOT to switch to Vista, something that did not exist with
any previous version of windows. DRM just as one example.

And the few reasons Vista might have, quite a few of them are artificially
created by incompatibility. DX10 comes to mind as one example.

What are they gonna do with the next version? Totally change the UI yet
again? And then what? Create DX11 and make it compatible with the new
version only so they can list it as a new feature?

There is a point in time with *any* software (or hardware for that matter)
product where one hits a wall feature-wise. Many software products such as
everything in MsOffice and comparable have hit this wall a long time ago.
Operating systems are next as far as I am concerned.

The times where each new release of an OS is revolutionary and is something
that everyone just *has to have* are over.

Considering that...I would be careful with your statement above. MS is a
huge company. While it makes a huge amount of money, it also needs a huge
amount of money to sustain itself. Is the OS market really going to be able
to sustain this in the long term future? I have my doubts.

I am seriously not trying to take a stab at MS here. This is just simply how
I see the situation. If I am right or wrong, I suppose time will tell.

--
Stephan
2003 Yamaha R6

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å›ã®ã“ã¨å¿˜ã‚ŒãŸã¨ããŒãªã„ã‹ã‚‰

 

[roman modic]

Hello!

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/04/25/vista-microsoft-earnings-tech-cx_bc_0426microsoft.html
Dell's announcement aside, Vista will dominate the desktop, of course. But the desktop has always been the place from which
Microsoft can get a grip on the rest of the computing world. The question: If that strength has turned into a soft spot, then
what?

--

.... Microsoft is not OK ...
.... Microsoft is dead ...
.... Microsoft doesn't matter ...
.... Microsoft is dead in theory ...
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2007/04/microsoft_is_de.php

Regards, Roman

 

[Justin]

As far as I am concerned, 2 of MS' major products (Windows, Office) have
both reached a point in time where getting people to buy new versions is
going to get more and more difficult. Creating reasons to ugprade is going
to get more and more difficult. As far as I am concerned, Office already
dead ended back in 2003 if not even earlier. The only significant change I
know about between 2003 and 2007 is the UI!

We've already gone over the "ribbon" and why they took that routed ;p

 

[Doris Day - MFB]

I think she just wants us all to get our panties all in a bunch

No, only those of "us" that have Microsoft shares. Most of us do not.

Love and Kisses,
Doris

 

[Guest]

You and I will be in Assisted Care Living by the Time MicroSquish isn't on
the Merry-Go-Round any more !

Can anyone say "Web Based Applications"? You can bet your last dollar that Microsoft will have a sizeable share of this market also. This is where Microsoft is putting much of their development investments. You should research all the aspects of a company's performance and future developments before you make a biased judgement based upon only one view of the argument. I don't like Microsoft because I think they are corporate bullies, but I admire the genious of their software architechs. I would buy almost anything they develop. Microsoft may very well bite the dust at any given moment. The company didn't achieve its current position by being led by a bunch of dummies. In any event, the company would undoubtably be taken over in a hostile bid by another company or some conglomerate and you would then have an even larger monopolistic entity. If for some reason the company only shrinks in size, either with products offered or income earned, to let's say only 50% of the market in

any given field, is that not the mark of a successful company? God, I would love to have their money.