Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Shareholder Disappointed by Vista Phony 7 [sic], Which Fails to Sell; Office 2010 Used Only by 4% of Office Users

Puzzle piece



Summary: The pieces of Microsoft's future and its monopolistic legacy are falling apart

MICROSOFT HAS a problem with the future and in the next post we'll expand on Steve Ballmer dumping a lot of his Microsoft shares. A lot of evidence suggests that people increasingly go mobile; this is easy to measure because unlike installed base, sales of a mobile device is something that can be tracked. Physical appliances -- as opposes to bits and bytes (like Web traffic or copy of an operating system) -- are scarce but concrete.



We hardly write about Vista Phony 7 [sic] for several reasons; one is decreased focus on Microsoft and another is reluctance to give more publicity to a device which would never have earned much publicity had it not been for roughly half a billion dollars in marketing (a huge sum compared to about $80 million spent on advertising Office 2010, the latest version of this company's #1 cash cow).

Since we have not mentioned Vista Phony 7 [sic] for a while (it gets plenty of negative reviews), we'll just name one Microsoft booster (and existing/former Microsoft investor) Bill Snyder, who writes about Vista Phony 7 [sic] and ridicules it by arguing: "given how many mistakes Microsoft made in the design of the Windows Phone 7 OS, it probably makes sense to focus on not using the device. No one, as near as I can tell, will want to spend much time with it. Maybe the slogan should be "The smartphone for people who hate smartphones.""

Microsoft has been shipping such phones to warehouses (channel stuffing) and imposing them on employees using promotional blanket-type deals, but notice the deafening silence when it comes to numbers. Microsoft always brags about the number of sales shortly after a release (and even prior to a release, e.g. when they speak about alleged preorders and sometimes tell that they sell out products which do not yet exist). Vista Phony 7 [sic] must therefore be a disaster.

Microsoft is having the same type of problem with the old cash cow. Earlier this year we wrote about initial sales of Office 2010 being disappointing and now we learn from IBM's Rob Weir that "[o]nly 4% of users have updated to Office 2010. Retraining costs (Ribbon interface) cited as concern." Here is the article with all the claims (from IDG):

Analysis of sales one month after the consumer release was that Microsoft Office 2010's early sales were disappointing, according to NPD Group..

[...]

Thirty million represents only about 4 percent of Office users who have converted to the new suite. That might be a bleak percentage, or it might represent a fantastic opportunity; it depends on how quickly Microsoft can convert the remaining 96 percent of users, and that means convincing notoriously risk averse business IT departments to make the switch.


This must be absolutely terrible and no wonder Elop ran away. No wonder Microsoft is downgraded by so many analysts, either. In the next post we will cover Ballmer's arguably suspicious activities.

Microsoft's bottom line now relies on this war on customers (Microsoft is squeezing poor Windows and Office users who did not previously pay) and racketeering [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] that lets Microsoft monetise other people's products, e.g. Android and SUSE. Welcome to the 'new Microsoft', the bully.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 13/06/2025: Journalists Targeted by Cracking, China-Japan and Israel-Iran Tensions Grow
Links for the day
Twitter (X) is Dying, Now It's Just Like a Mafia-Type Operation of the Man Who Does Nazi Salutes in Public
a form of extortion
The Price of Exposing Corruption in Poland (and Elsewhere)
It's easier to participate in corruption than to merely do the right thing and oppose it
 
Gemini Links 13/06/2025: (Not)virtues and Project Yeet Broadband
Links for the day
Links 13/06/2025: US Reduces Nonessential Staff at Baghdad Embassy Ahead of Strikes in Iran, Invasion of California Debated
Links for the day
X11 is Free Software
Whether you agree (e.g. on politics) with the person/s forking it doesn't matter
The More Time Passes, the Better Our Advice on Social Control Media Seems
At the end of the day, any platform you do not control yourself is working for someone else
UK High Court Blasts Brett Wilson LLP for Misusing "GDPR" After Failed Efforts to Censor Critics Using 'Libel' Claims
No wonder this firm is rapidly shrinking
Recent Blunders in Microsoft GitHub (e.g. Slop-Generated Bug Reports or GPL Violations 'as a Service') Taking Their Toll?
Put bluntly, if you still use Microsoft GitHub, then you're slave to Microsoft
American Imperialism and Microsoft Plagiarism
Techrights will therefore do what Microsoft does not want it to do: it'll write even more about Microsoft
When They Have Nothing Left to Help Advance Abusive Litigation for Microsoft People... Other Than Throwing ~500 Pages of Someone Else's Work Into a PDF
Microsoft is having a very tough year
Slopwatch and Yet More Holes in 'Secure Boot' (as Usual!), Promoted Inside Linux by the Man We Are Suing
Today's Slopwatch will be short
Gemini Links 13/06/2025: People You've Left Behind, Life Update and OS Changes
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 12, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 12, 2025
Links 12/06/2025: Portland Homeless Deaths Quadruple, COVID Cases Surge in Asia
Links for the day
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part IX: Minimum Wages For You (Experienced Scientist), Alicante/EU Paydays For Me (Unproductive, Corrupt Official)
Does UPRP maladministration extend to the false belief that qualified and experienced scientists can play the role of circus clowns?
"The Liberating Power of Simply Telling People the Truth."
'polite' bullying
Who Imitates Who? Plagiarist as Client (From Microsoft), 'Plagiarism' at the Law Firm?
let's revisit the subject
EPO's Gareth Lord Asked About "Quality and Productivity" or, Put Another Way, Why the EPO Keeps Granting So Many Invalid/Illegal Patents
letter to Lord
EPO's Central Staff Committee (CSC) Scrutinises the Man Who Illegally Grants (and Forces Others to Illegally Participate in Granting) Software Patents in Europe
EPO compels examiners to break the law in the name of obeying illegal "rules" or "orders"
The Latest Rumour Says The Next (as Correctly Predicted Before) Wave of Layoffs at Microsoft is 3 Weeks Away, "Larger Than the First Wave"
Step 2
TV Licensing Used to SPAM Your Postbox, Now It Does the Same to E-mail
First they ask for your E-mail address; then they start nagging you via E-mail
The Toxic Playbook
Either you support Prince Mohammed bin Salman or you're a nazi
It's Possible That BetaNews Got Cracked, But Nobody Talks About It, The Site Contains an Outdated Old Image, No Activity
It's possible that they will never explain what happened to the site and users' accounts
Links 12/06/2025: Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson Dies
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/06/2025: Video Game Diegesis and Steam Next Fest
Links for the day
Why the Militants Have Lost Every Battle Since 2022 (When Attacking My Wife and I in Various Ways, Even Attacking Our Employers)
This takes patience, sure, but at the end most evildoers face the consequences for their actions
Our Priority is Still Tackling Software Patents and Corruption in Patent Offices
Meanwhile we got compliments on our recent articles, which means that they are effective
Politics Will Impact Software Choices
Will those systems respect users' freedom?
EPO: Neglecting Children to Promote American Monopolies by Shielding Them From European Competition
Yesterday the Central Staff Committee at the EPO spoke about another "reform" at the Office
Slopwatch: Another Day, Another Slopfest, LLM Slop Scrapers Slow Down Our Site
We too have some slop issues; this past day this site and the sister site had to answer about 2.5 million requests (not counting Gemini Protocol) and it's slowing things down for everybody
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 11, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Links 11/06/2025: More Vulnerabilities Found in 'Smart' Phones, China Extends Reach in the Pacific
Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/06/2025: Grain and Steam Next Fest
Links for the day
Links 11/06/2025: "Quantum" Hype From IBM, US Closer to Martial Law, and “The Nation” Celebrates Milestone
Links for the day
IBM's CEO Roasted, Sizzled and Grilled for Dumb and Inconsistent Vapourware Promises
It looks like being a chronic liar is what it takes to lead the company once synonymous with computing
IBM's Goal Is Not (and Never Was) Computer Users' Freedom
More than 1.5 decades ago I found IBM to be an "ally of convenience" because of OpenDocument Format (ODF)
Wayland Shows the IBM/Red Hat Way of Doing Things
IBM is trying to 'kill' X
GitHub is Proprietary, Controlled by Microsoft, and GPL Violation Warehouse
"IRS tax filing software [will be] released to the people as free software" ... In general this is good news
Slopfarm Catastrophe
Seems like BetaNews (or BetaNoise) has just suffered a major data loss and restored the site from a week-old backup
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part VIII: Illegal Working Conditions
How many people need to die for these people to get their massive salaries?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 10, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 10, 2025