

Microsoft revenue down 6%, earnings down 30% for third quarter - ilamont
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2009/04/23/microsoft-earnings-down-over-last-year

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symesc
I don't see how they could have done otherwise.

They are delivering very little in the way of innovation and have no real
focus as a business.

From my angle their products are less impressive than their peers in each
market segment, with the possible exception of the Office franchise.

I have an Xbox 360, which I like, and I manage a SharePoint platform as my
job. SharePoint has its moments, but overall it's solid and it works. It's
good. It's a standard Microsoft product. Mlah.

But when it comes to computing resources that I own and manage, there's no
value on the Microsoft platform any more. We have 3 Mac laptops at home and a
Mini for the TV. I have an iPhone despite already having a work-issued
BlackBerry (RIM is another story).

The value I get out of OS X may be things the consumer can't see or doesn't
see soon enough before purchasing a PC or a Windows Mobile device. Things like
antivirus and malware. Things like integration between hardware and software,
to which anyone who has used gestures on modern MacBook can testify. Things
like instant-on when waking from sleep. Things like simple backups and
restores, and transferring user data and configurations from an old Mac to a
new one.

I'm sure a lot of those things that differentiate Apple's offering from
Microsoft's will not last for a long time. Windows 7 will close the gap. But
I'm enjoying these features now and have been enjoying some of them for years.
Why wait?

Microsoft will not stand still, and neither will Apple. But unless something
happens at the DNA level in those two organizations, I expect Apple's offering
to actually increase the gap, because that's been the trend since OS X was
introduced in 2001. Windows XP was introduced later the same year . . . and
I'm using it here at work to post this.

The fact that I'm using an 8 year old OS at work fully underscores the
challenges faced by Microsoft. We have no plans to upgrade. None.

So Apple is the platform of innovation. They're innovating at the OS level and
people who innovate are drawn to the capabilities to afford. The next
generation of software is being brought about on platforms other than Windows.

Machiavelli nailed it in 1505 and in 2009 Microsoft is suffering the effects.
A long but poignant quotation:

"It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in
hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take
the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator
has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions and
lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness
arises partly from the fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side,
and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new
things until they have had a long experience of them."
([http://gojomo.blogspot.com/2002/06/machiavellis-
innovators-d...](http://gojomo.blogspot.com/2002/06/machiavellis-innovators-
dilemma.html))

The guys who got rich at Microsoft are still there, strangling the place
because they only know one way to get rich and damned if they're going to
throw that away. The smart guys take off, unwilling to be stifled, so you're
left with worker bees who nod when told to nod.

The best thing that could happen for Microsoft would be a new senior
management team. The second best thing would be to force them all to use any
products other than their own.

~~~
briansmith
My ThinkPad running Vista has all the advantages you list for Mac OS X--I
don't have "gestures" but I get to use the TrackPoint + 3 buttons instead,
which I greatly prefer. Plus, I have "page up" and "page down" keys.

Can anybody give an example of something that makes Mac OS X better than
Vista? I am not worried about driver issues because my hardware vendor gives
me good drivers. I'm not worried about malware because I use UAC and because
the network clients I use (e.g. IE8 and Chrome) all use more layers of malware
mitigation than are even available on Mac OS X.

Also, why do you count your company's preference for Microsoft's 8-year-old
version of Windows over modern Mac OS X _against_ Microsoft? Doesn't it show
instead that Windows was better 8 years ago than Mac OS X is today?

~~~
mechanical_fish
_Can anybody give an example of something that makes Mac OS X better than
Vista?_

It's Unix. That's the big one. Unix isn't necessarily the Platonic ideal of an
operating system, but it is the standard. Learn it, and you know an OS that
runs on almost all the hardware in the world and that powers the majority of
the web.

No more Cygwin. No struggling with bizarrely different Windows semantics. No
falling behind the open-source development curve -- git works better, ruby
works better. Any software which is developed on Mac or Linux works better on
Macs or Linux boxes -- that's where the bugs get fixed first.

Obvious other reasons to love the Mac include _really_ not worrying about
malware, and the Mac software community and its well-designed Mac-only apps.
I'm not a heavy user of such things, yet even I have a few that I would be
loath to give up: 1Password, Quicksilver, Textmate [1], Pixelmator, xScope,
iWork, HandBrake, VisualHub.

A final obvious reason: Mac users have Windows around if we want it. [2] I've
got two Windows VMs on this machine right now, which I use for the dreaded
Quickbooks (argh), the occasional game, and (of course) cross-browser testing
of web page rendering.

\---

[1] Though I use emacs most of the time.

[2] Windows users can apparently also have the Mac around... but it's not
supported, and they have to solve a lot of those pesky driver issues.

~~~
slackerIII
There are lots of reasons to love OSX, but I don't think the malware argument
is standing up very well these days.

<http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2941>

"It’s really simple. Safari on the Mac is easier to exploit. The things that
Windows do to make it harder (for an exploit to work), Macs don’t do. Hacking
into Macs is so much easier. You don’t have to jump through hoops and deal
with all the anti-exploit mitigations you’d find in Windows."

------
larrykubin
Oh my, only 13+ billion dollars in revenue and 3 billion in net income during
one of the worst economic downturns in decades. These numbers are more than
Apple and Google combined. Total cash up from 23 billion to 25 billion. The
horror.

~~~
sharpn
True. But you pay a lot for the 3b as an investor. 1% earnings & negligible
dividend for a 'monopoly' is not great, even in this low-interest environment.
It indicates that the market (and I would guess most HN readers) do not
believe MS's 'monopoly' is secure.

~~~
tc
_you pay a lot for the 3b as an investor....It indicates that the market do
not believe MS's 'monopoly' is secure._

Your argument makes zero sense. _You_ may believe MS's monopoly is insecure,
but if the markets believed that as well, then you wouldn't have to pay so
much to own MS. The short term dividend returns would be greater because
investors would be expecting capital loss.

~~~
sharpn
I agree, you're right about the low dividend. But the argument against paying
a high price for MS's future earnings stands. I conflated two ideas, but
although I actually believe MS's conservative cash position is perhaps their
best strength - I still believe they had a valuable monopoly & lost their way.

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jakozaur
It seems that IT sector is quite unaffected by current recession. Of course it
suffers as whole economy slows down, but still perform much better then the
other industries.

1 year of indexes

S&P 500: -38.26%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: -37.66%

Nasdaq Composite: -33.56%

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ffernan
Oh no! I'm not a big fan of internet explorer - but I hope the company does
well!

