The Incredible Demise of Microsoft Windows (the Cash Cow That Once Indirectly Accounted for About 80% of Profits)
This figure, 80%, comes from an old report at The Register. And it's not like Microsoft does well in servers, either (market share falling there, too). Windows was never the cash cow in and of itself, an associate explains, as instead it was all about the monopoly rents from the operating system market which provided the income (see how much Android and iOS make for Google and Apple through "store" "commissions"). It's a distinction, but hard to express clearly and most people latch onto the wishful and deeply misguided thought of profiting by selling but Microsoft does not profit from selling, these people profit by keeping others off the market.
"[Microsoft] are willing to lose money for years and years just to make sure that you don't make any money, either. And they are mean, REALLY mean."
--Robert X. Cringely
THE revenue Microsoft gets from Windows is rapidly falling, based on Microsoft itself. We're talking about a rapid decline (double-digit % dips in recent quarters) and now "gaming" - even if not truly profitable - brings more revenue than "client" or Windows.
If is essential to understand that Microsoft Office was never the most profitable thing and now in the "clown computing" era many companies opt out of Microsoft, or demand low-cost offerings from Microsoft (Google is among the potent counterparts).
Today we take a look at Africa, one of the world's largest continents (yes, Asia is bigger) with a lot of the world's people. Watch how, based on this data extracted from statCounter, Windows is getting smaller every year if not every month. Android/Linux is what's growing.
2019 in Africa:
2020 in Africa:
2021 in Africa:
2022 in Africa:
Last year in Africa:
Now Windows is measured below 10% in many African countries, including very large ones. It keeps going down, even this year. █