06.27.12

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Microsoft Dies in Hardware

Posted in Finance, Hardware, Microsoft at 10:30 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Just like on the Web, Microsoft bleeds in the hardware sector and the business is not sustainable

MICROSOFT’S debt cannot be too encouraging to the management. The company’s endless hardware failures are consistent at Microsoft, so the cash cows (Office and Windows) are all that’s left to support the rest. The company has lost billions on Xbox and it still bleeds money there:

Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, which includes its Xbox business, lost $229 million (£143m) in the three months ending March 31 after sales of Xbox 360 fell by almost half.

The division’s revenue was down 16.5 per cent, to $1.6 billion (£1bn). Xbox 360 sales during the quarter totalled 1.4 million – a drop of more than 48 per cent from this time last year, when 2.7 million consoles were sold and the division’s revenue rose 60 per cent.

As a Nokia expert puts it,”Windows combined market share globally of Windows Mobile and Windows Phone was down to .. 1.3%” (no surprise there).

That cannot be possibly be sustainable and Microsoft cannot catch up with the leaders:

Was Microsoft’s Surface tablet an act of desperation? Yes, says a report in the New York Times.

Microsoft and the PC hardware industry were failing miserably at taking on Apple’s iPad, forcing Redmond’s hand, according to the report.

The company’s gangster CEO is running out of time. █

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4 Comments

Needs Sunlight said,

June 27, 2012 at 10:53 am

Xbox is still a money pit:

http://www.edge-online.com/news/microsofts-xbox-division-loses-229-million

It’s kept around to act as a development lab for DRM on junk commodity hardware. Demo units I’ve seen in stores often have the Red Ring O’Death and even when the units work, kids will queue for the Wii or Playstation rather than play the Xbox.

What happened about it being a fire hazard? Was that ever resolved?

Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 28th, 2012 at 12:17 pm
Some things even reparations cannot undo.
Guest Editorial Team said,

June 28, 2012 at 2:30 am

Everyone should see the video of the Vista H8 tablet. demo failure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-pMZd1fupw

Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 28th, 2012 at 12:14 pm
Sweaty fingers? Oh, it’s not Steve.