smackedass said:
Hello,
Am wondering if anyone out there has any opinions as to what the most
popular, in terms of being owned and used, version of Vista is, and is
expected to be.
I'm a technician, am about to buy a Vista laptop, and my primary
consideration is to first acquire the version that I'm most likely to be
hired to fix.
Thanks, in advance,
Home Premium and then Ultimate.
An often irreverent look at some of the week's other news
by Paul Thurrott, (e-mail address removed)
Shock and Awe: Microsoft Earnings Blow Past Expectations
We often joke about how Microsoft makes a billion dollars every quarter, but this time the
company really did: Last night, the software giant announced profits of almost $5 billion on
revenue of a whopping $14.4 billion in the first quarter 2007, both of which are records for
Microsoft and huge gains over the same quarter last year (when the company's profits rose 65
percent and its revenue was up 32 percent). Microsoft credited unexpectedly high sales of
Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 for the boost, and backed that up with
numbers: Its Windows client division brought in $5.27 billion, up 67 percent from a year ago,
and the division responsible for Office 2007 saw sales rise 34 percent to $4.83 billion.
Microsoft said that the Windows sales mix for the quarter was 85 percent Vista, 15 percent
Windows XP. You can try to paint Vista as a failure, but the reality is that the latest version
of Windows is off to a smoking start. Don't believe the FUD.
Comparing Apples to Oranges. Or at Least to Microsoft.
Industry darling Apple released its first quarter 2007 financial results earlier this week, and
the press reacted with the usual amounts of hyperbole and glee. Let's compare the results from
Apple and Microsoft, shall we? Apple's revenue of $5.26 billion was about one-third of
Microsoft's. Microsoft's profits last quarter were six and a half times bigger than those of
Apple's, which made $770 million. Why is this amount notable? Apple was widely applauded for
increasing its margins, but the reality is that Microsoft's profits are about two and a half
times greater per dollar made than those of Apple. Although Apple gets all the good
press--analysts were quoted as just being "relieved" at Microsoft's announcement
yesterday--Microsoft is actually doing quite a bit better than Apple. And that's why the
situation with the company's stock prices--Microsoft's stocks are mired around $30 while
Apple's have surged above $100--doesn't make any sense. It's interesting to see how differently
these companies are treated, and not in a way that makes any sense given their actual performance.
More on Microsoft's Earnings
But let's not get off-track. Looking more closely at Microsoft's quarterly earnings, some other
interesting figures emerge. The division responsible for the Zune and Xbox 360--neither of
which are setting the market on fire right now--saw sales unexpectedly drop 21 percent to $929
million. Microsoft's online services revenue actually rose 23 percent year-over-year to $623
million, despite Microsoft's continued problems battling Google in the online services market.
Best of all, Microsoft's increasingly important server division saw sales rise 15 percent to
$2.75 billion, with its income up 32 percent to
$979 million. (And not to beat this comparison to death, but Microsoft's server division made
more profit last quarter than all of Apple's products combined. I guess you need to sell an
awful lot of iPods to match the power of all those client access licenses.)
Even More on Microsoft's Earnings
Allow me to predict one of the weak complaints Vista bashers will make about Microsoft's
financial results: They'll charge that Microsoft's earnings last quarter were artificially
inflated because the company previously deferred revenue from the free and low-cost Vista
upgrades offered during the 2006 holiday season. So is it true? According to Microsoft, the
company deferred $1.67 billion in revenue from the last calendar quarter of 2006 until the
first calendar quarter of 2007, or about $1.14 billion in profits. But even without that
one-time gain, Microsoft's revenue would have been up 17 percent. More to the point, the slice
of the pie that Windows is responsible for would have still jumped a whopping 30 percent.
Microsoft CFO Christopher P. Liddell said that regardless of trends, sales of Vista were $300
million to $400 million higher than the company's internal projections. Sales of Office 2007
were about $200 million higher than expected.
Home Premium Is the Most Popular Vista Version, as Expected
One of the interesting factoids that came out of Microsoft's earnings report is that the
premium versions of Vista--mostly Vista Home Premium, but also Vista Ultimate--account for
about 71 percent of all Vista versions bundled with new PCs. That percentage represents an 18
percent jump year-over-year compared with sales of premium XP versions (primarily XP Media
Center Edition 2005).
Xbox 360 Data Reveals Some Strength, Some Weakness
Microsoft said it sold just 500,000 Xbox 360 consoles last quarter as demand for the console
decreased after the holiday season. Last quarter's sales puts the worldwide installed base of
the console at about 11 million units. The good news is that more than six million of those
Xbox 360 owners are members of Xbox Live, Microsoft's online service, and the Xbox 360
accessory attach rate in the United States remains at record levels. Looking ahead, Microsoft
said that the division responsible for its Xbox 360 and the Zune will be profitable by the July
quarter. I won't hold my breath.
PlayStation Creator Resigns from Sony
This week, PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi announced his resignation as chairman and CEO of
the Sony Computer Entertainment division.
Kutaragi will stay on through June, after which time he'll serve as honorary Sony chairman and
senior technology adviser (read: be put out to pasture). Kutaragi's departure is no
coincidence: His latest console, the PlayStation 3, is overpriced and not selling well because
of his decision to use expensive and hard to manufacture components in a bid to overpower the
Xbox 360. That strategy has backfired: The technologically inferior Nintendo Wii continues to
outsell both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360 retains enough key advantages
over the PlayStation 3 to prevent Sony from dominating the market. In March, retailers in the
United States sold 259,000 Wiis, 199,000 Xbox 360s, and 130,000 PlayStation 3s. In the previous
generation of consoles, the PlayStation 2 controlled 70 percent of the video game console
market. As for the official reason for Kutaragi's resignation, Sony said that he's "decided to
pursue his dreams beyond PlayStation." As have gamers, apparently.
