Microsoft Posts Record Q1 Revenue of $16.20 Bn.

[randomizer]

IBM is still the largest computer related company.

They had to change though. Their mainframe market collapsed. The consumer desktop market may do the same eventually, and Microsoft has no real contingency plan because desktops are their only viable market. Smart phones? Microsoft flopped that market years ago. Cloud (hesitant use of such a vague marketing term)? Google has far more chance of controlling that.

Rocking an IBM LCD at work

 

[-Fran-]

Heh, my point by getting IBM into the conversation is simply: they were the big consumer brand back in the 80's and early 90's. They got off the consumer space to reach business greenies. They're doing quite well indeed; everyone who knows what websphere/axis is, knows it; that expensive mammoth convo is a money milker

Anyway, MS doesn't have any real competition in the consumer (desktop) area where Office Suit and OS are his golden cows. Sadly, that's bad for us, consumers, and weirdly bad for MS today: they had a monopoly, stopped doing fine R&D and now they're just making a force push of their OS through "legacy". Works for them at least, not quite for us. But now the paradigm is changing and they're not quite catching up with it.

Cheers!

 

[K2N hater]

Actually I'd love to see IBM to support OpenOffice in a way to make it really better than MS Office. Would certainly help with their past sins...

 

[thillntn]

Everyone talking about apple and m$...meanwhile is $ony still refusing to releas their numbers? I find it funny that apple would consider such a aquisition...meanwhile it's business as usual for bill .love em or hate em m$ is doing well.

 

[wotan31]

[citation][nom]Shez[/nom]Hey, remember this headline from JUST yesterday "Is Microsoft Really a Dying Consumer Brand?". I think the question has been answered.[/citation]
It sure has - right about the time that Apple posted their profits for this quarter. $20 Billion. I'll even do the math for you, that's 25% more than Microsoft's.

 

[wotan31]

[citation][nom]Vladislaus[/nom]Just because one company has a profit margin than the other doesn't equate that their products are more expensive. [/citation]
Nobody said Microsoft is "more expensive". But you frequently see in these forums comments that describe Apple as "overpriced". Overpriced implies that the retail price is excessive when compared to the cost of developing and manufacturing the product, and that the company is taking excessive profit from their products. When we compare the actual profit margins, we can see that Microsoft's products are actually far more overpriced than Apple's, in the sense that you as the consumer are paying them loads of profits, above and beyond the cost of producing the product.

 

[wotan31]

[citation][nom]Vladislaus[/nom]IBM is still the largest computer related company.[/citation]
Wrong. It is now HP. It was IBM, for many many years, but HP recently took the crown. Remember, HP now owns Compaq, DEC, EDS, and a host of other smaller companies.

 

[thechief73]

HAhaha!... Take that CNN and your fake news. Its ALIVE! and making a ton of $$$ so it seems.

 

[eddieroolz]

Personally, I'd rather put my money and faith in a company that actually produces something useful for the world and society at large, while being more humble than ever before. The last place you'll find me investing is in an all-flash-no-substance company like Apple.

So therefore, congratulations Microsoft. You deserved it.

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]wotan31[/nom]It sure has - right about the time that Apple posted their profits for this quarter. $20 Billion. I'll even do the math for you, that's 25% more than Microsoft's.[/citation]
Fantastic, Apple made more revenue. Did they made more profit? No! Microsoft did 5.41 billion while Apple did 4.31 billion. That's also 25% more profit.

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]wotan31[/nom]Nobody said Microsoft is "more expensive". But you frequently see in these forums comments that describe Apple as "overpriced". Overpriced implies that the retail price is excessive when compared to the cost of developing and manufacturing the product, and that the company is taking excessive profit from their products. When we compare the actual profit margins, we can see that Microsoft's products are actually far more overpriced than Apple's, in the sense that you as the consumer are paying them loads of profits, above and beyond the cost of producing the product.[/citation]
Usually someone calls overpriced when comparing a product to the other competitors, not manufacturing costs. ATI profit margin is bigger than Nvidia, yet ATI graphics are cheaper.

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]wotan31[/nom]Wrong. It is now HP. It was IBM, for many many years, but HP recently took the crown. Remember, HP now owns Compaq, DEC, EDS, and a host of other smaller companies.[/citation]
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/18/global-2000-10_The-Global-2000_Rank.html

take a look at 35th and 33rd place.

 

[dEAne]

I guess CNN was wrong.

 

[leongrado]

Windows 7 and Xbox kicking ass!!!

 

[beayn]

[citation][nom]SneakySnake[/nom]and people are worried about Apple tax??MS makes 43% profit on products sold. Apple makes 21%. Interesting.[/citation]

It's the Apple Tax on computer hardware alone that annoys people. The fact that their profit margins on smartphones are similar to other smartphones has nothing to do with their PC hardware's ridiculously inflated prices.

 

[thedokok]

Yet I don't see why that annoys people more than Windows costing radically more than OSX or Linux distros.

Apple charges more for hardware, but at least they actually do work at making it something different. The unibody frame, backlit keyboards, battery life etc. and design and styling do set them apart, and usually if you do spec up a PC laptop to be the same weight, size etc. there is still an apple tax, but not as much as people generally perceive. You see this in the iPad, people screamed how overpriced it was, but no-one has brought a comparable product to market yet that has been radically cheaper, in fact the tablets that have come out have been more expensive or similarly priced, (and that is months later, when other companies should have the advantage of lower component costs and better chips coming onto the market). There will be cheaper tablets soon, but I think people claiming that apple made huge profits on the iPad were mistaken, it isn't easy to make something like that cheaply.

A lot of people here seem offended by apple 'overcharging' yet Microsoft overcharge considerably more. I just find it interesting how people process things.

Both companies seem to be getting it about right, consumers see enough value in the products at the price-points they are at to keep buying them. It doesn't mean Windows customers are idiots to pay 'so much' for their OS or their software, or that apple buyers are idiots to pay 'so much' for their hardware, it just means it is worth it to the individual consumer.

 

[beayn]

You forget that windows is only $120, or $100 on sale. Students can pick it up for $30, sometimes less. Even if it were overpriced, it isn't a massive chunk of your money. Buying a Mac for $1200 when the same hardware with Windows installed is $700 for a PC means you're paying $500 for the OS. Backlit keyboards don't make up for that. Unibody frames are a bad idea imo and I don't know why anyone buys them.

So the point is, even if MS were making 50% markup, it amounts to 50 bucks and the Apple tax is at least 3-5x that.

 

[luke904]

sure microsoft is better than apple... but dam guys.. microsoft sucks too

 

[luke904]

You forget that windows is only $120, or $100 on sale. Students can pick it up for $30, sometimes less. Even if it were overpriced, it isn't a massive chunk of your money. Buying a Mac for $1200 when the same hardware with Windows installed is $700 for a PC means you're paying $500 for the OS. Backlit keyboards don't make up for that. Unibody frames are a bad idea imo and I don't know why anyone buys them.

So the point is, even if MS were making 50% markup, it amounts to 50 bucks and the Apple tax is at least 3-5x that.


EXACTLY...

 

[pythy]

If this is dying then someone please kill me!!

 

[WarraWarra]

Good for MS.
Amazing what the recessions / delayed (2009) hardware upgrade did to company upgrades this year (2010) = hardware + software jump to Win7 instead of incremental upgrade as is normal yearly activity and usual not Win7 Upgrade.

New pc + free Win7 seems to good a deal for Company's to resist.

Just hope the recession could do the same for other company's selling products and similar upgrade jump / leapfrog event.

 

[WarraWarra]

PS> I blame this MS good luck on the now legal Marijuana in CA, makes their Execs. more placid and allows workers more relaxed work environment = less bugs and more fixes.


LOL LMAO
Maybe Apple should try even more 10Lbs per worker marijuana it might just help eventually.

ROFL.

 

[syrold]

YEAH!!! Kill APPLE!

 

[FloKid]

So like I hit to buttons shwang a sword and got a billion. Amazing. Good to know this life is balanced.

 

[TEAMSWITCHER]

[citation][nom]syrold[/nom]YEAH!!! Kill APPLE![/citation]

Unfortunately, Apple posted higher revenue numbers this quarter, and Apple has more headroom for growth. Google is taking all the money out of the software business with Android and Google Docs, and Apple is well diversified in Hardware, Software, and Web Services. Hardware fiasco's like the Xbox 360, give Microsoft little credibility in transforming itself into a multi-faceted company like Apple.

It's gonna be painful watching M$ nose-dive but it WILL happen. Nothing lasts forever.