02.15.10
Numbers That Microsoft Cannot Let You See
Summary: A sobering look at how Microsoft is declining in most areas
ONE READER has sent us a pointer to this chart which shows what a financial disaster the online business has been to Microsoft.
Have a look at it. No wonder Microsoft has lost over $5,000,000,000 in just a few years despite claiming “success”.
We wonder when Microsoft will finally decide to do what it should have done years ago: Save its money and flush its entire online division down the drain.
Might it actually happen? Microsoft has many other “money pits” and dead products/divisions. Another financial disaster is Windows Mobile. Even the Seattle press, which is deep in Microsoft’s pocket, has not anything positive to say about it. Microsoft tried to acquire someone else’s mobile business and failed badly:
Microsoft suffered another blow when users of the Sidekick, a T-Mobile USA device whose services are run by Microsoft subsidiary Danger, lost their contacts and other data for several weeks. They publicly ranted about it on Twitter and other social networks for just as long.
Microsoft is being sued by Sidekick users right now. We previously wrote about Sidekick in:
- Microsoft Pink is Already Declared Dead and Danger Dies with Permanent Data Loss
- Microsoft Sued for Data Loss
- Lawsuits Against Microsoft Turn to Class Action Lawsuit While Microsoft Mobiles Become Dying Breed
- Microsoft Recovers Sidekick Data? Not So Fast!
So there. Microsoft may wish for people to miss or forget the billions of dollars the company loses outside its core units; but the numbers speak for themselves and Microsoft’s financial decline carries on [1, 2, 3, 4]. We must not let Microsoft get away with controlling the press and telling lies about its own performance. █
“They’re [Microsoft] hell-bent on dominating the entire information infrastructure of the world, and it scares the daylights out of me.”
–Antitrust attorney Gary Reback
mcinsand said,
February 15, 2010 at 9:14 am
Is there any self-promotional advertising advantage to MS’ online activities? Okay, so I know that there’s some, but how much? The reason that I ask is that I’m wondering if these fiscal losses still benefit the monopoly by giving marketing presense. If they do drop the online division, will that possibly make it easier for the masses to admit that the emperor has no clothes?
your_friend Reply:
February 15th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
They attempted these other things because they knew that the desktop/office market would not carry them forever and because competitors in any area could hasten their demise. Microsoft’s business model depends on them being the “center” of computing. Any real competition wrecks their margins, as we have seen, by unravelling their monopoly position. Now they stoop to monkey business like ACTA and “internet drivers licenses” to carry on but it is futile. Computers are swiftly going where pocket calculators went 20 years, well below Microsoft’s survival revenue level. Microsoft’s other efforts depended more on their desktop than their desktop was aided by second rate music devices, webTV, Hotmail and fake communities. In the end, all of their effort to lock others out and boost themselves simply made each of their services suck. Compare Google to Bing, Gmail to Hotmail, ODF to OOXML, Windows to Gnome, KDE, and XFCE, Amarok and Totem to WMP and so on and so forth. Microsoft is beat and imploding.
It is satisfying to finally see market forces overcome Microsoft’s market manipulation. The US Justice Department continues to fail. No one should have the power Microsoft did and computing should be free. Better laws will come when Microsoft is gone.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
February 15th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
There are other companies gaining power, but there is not much corruption in the process.