Financials Indicate Microsoft Prepping for War 349
SpaceAdmiral writes "Microsoft has surprised analysts by forecasting significantly higher expenses in the next fiscal year, an indication that the company might be getting ready to do battle with its online rivals. According to analyst Eugene Munster of Piper Jaffray, 'It looks like Microsoft is going to war with Google.'" From the article: "According to Mark Stahlman of Caris & Company, the fact that Microsoft plans to spend significantly more in 2007 was an indication of renewed aggressiveness in its competitive strategy and an indication that the company was returning to the kind of actions it exhibited before the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit in the mid- and late 1990's. 'It's pretty clear that Bill is running the company again,' Mr. Stahlman said, referring to Bill Gates, 'and they are going to remake the business. They are being much more combative and much more strategically managed.'"
Spot the dinosaur (Score:5, Informative)
Spot the dinosaur
Mar 30th 2006 | REDMOND
From The Economist print edition
Microsoft’s core business is under threat from online software
IMAGE [economist.com]
RECENT advertisements for Microsoft show office workers as dinosaurs, stuck in a bygone era. Aptly, it is an accusation that some are now making about the software company itself.
Microsoft earns more than half its $40 billion or so of annual revenue—and the vast majority of its profits—on just two products: the Windows operating-system and Office, a collection of personal-computer (PC) applications including word-processing and spreadsheet programs. Both, however, are coming under threat from new technologies.
The pressure Microsoft is facing in its core businesses is similar to one confronted by IBM—another firm that was once synonymous with computing. At the beginning of the 1990s IBM had to face up to the shift from a computing world dominated by mainframes to one dotted by personal computers. In this new world hardware became a low-margin commodity and Microsoft’s operating system took the privileged position. Today, Microsoft still dominates the PC market. But like IBM before it, today’s giant knows that its position is under threat.
The threat to Microsoft comes from online applications, which are changing how people use computers. Rather than relying on an operating system and its associated application software—bought in a box from Microsoft, and then loaded onto a PC—computer users are increasingly able to call up the software they need over the internet. Just as Amazon, Google, eBay and other firms provide services via the web, software companies are now selling software as a subscription service that can be accessed via a web-browser. Salesforce.com [salesforce.com], the best known example of this trend, offers salesforce management tools; other firms offer accounting and other back-office functions; there are even web-based word-processors and spreadsheets. This lowers the economic and technical barriers to entry for firms wanting to compete with Microsoft, as well as diluting the advantages the firm gets from controlling how the computer works.
These huge shifts in computing take a very long time, because there is so much inertia in the marketplace—the idea of online applications has taken years to get even this far. Microsoft is still in a position that most firms would kill for. Its two main products—Windows and Office—remain fabulously profitable quasi-monopolies. Even if online applications and open-source software make rapid progress, Microsoft would retain a powerful and profitable position for some time.
For all that, however, online applications clearly threaten the way Microsoft makes its money. Its licensing agreements are geared for a world where software is a physical product, purchased on discs, and paid for at once or in regular instalments. But its online competitors charge each user a subscription: some like Google are even supplying software as a free online service, financed by advertisements. Last month Google acquired the firm that created Writely, a popular online word-processing program that is an obvious potential competitor to Microsoft Word.
Online competitors have also mastered quick development and deployment times that Microsoft cannot match. Meanwhile open-source software—developed co-operatively and distributed free of charge—is also gaining ground. George Colony, the boss of Forrester, a technology-research firm, believes Microsoft faces the biggest challenge in the firm’s history: “Bill Gates knows how to compete with anyone who charges money for products,” he says, “but his head explodes whenever he has to go up against anyone who gives away product
Windows monopoly is secure (Score:3, Interesting)
Using Linux was an unmitigated disaster. Things that seem like absolutely basic functionality don't work right. I spent literally 40+ hours poring over online forums trying to figure out how to get piec
Re:Windows monopoly is secure (Score:3, Interesting)
To be clear, I *WANT* to use Linux as my desktop. I've used Linux for development purposes since 1995, and I'm a big fan of open source. I'm not trying to start a flamewar; I'm trying to understand how we could have a meaningful alternative to Linux.
Re:Windows monopoly is secure (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Windows monopoly is secure (Score:5, Insightful)
It didn't come with Microsoft Office, and he just assumed that it would have that package. He was a bit taken back by the fact that to do Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access he would have to shell out another $500-$600.
He connected to the Internet and was off in running after a few hours of work, and suddenly he started to think how much Windows sucked. The problem you ask? Well he started to get all these "Windows" on the screen that prevented him from working. He also noticed that his computer was now crawling along, and much slower than it use to be. He has no clue of pop-ups and spyware. He does now. He went to load a "new" game and found that the his "video driver" from ATI was beyond buggy and crashed so much that he needed to reload Windows with a recovery CD. (The only CD provided by the manufacturer). He then realized that recovery meant "loose all your data on your HD). Now all this guy wanted to do was surf the web, use and office package, email and print.
Now back to your problems. What exactly was your issues? What distro did you install? You say that you want to use Linux, then you have taken a giant leap forward and I can say without a doubt that almost every online support group is very friendly to new linux users. I would also trying a distro like Ubuntu.
Also what exactly do you want to do with your computer?
What hardware are you installing it on?
Lastly, be prepared to hear that Linux may not be the OS for you. If you want all the simplicity of a Macintosh and know that all the Mac hardware you buy will work without ANY hassle, then you probably should go out and buy a Macintosh. Does this mean that Linux sucks? Nope, it just isn't a fit for you. Now if you want to play all the latest games and don't mind fighting spyware, viruses and stability issues, then Windows is probably the best for you.
The advantage of Linux is that there will be competition. RedHat, SuSE, Ubuntu, et all are fighting to provide the best experience, and thus things are improving rapidly in the Linux world. Much much much faster than either Microsoft or Apple, and to be honest it amazes me that Linux has come so far so fast. So if Linux isn't for you today, then perhaps next month....
Re:Windows monopoly is secure (Score:5, Informative)
So, I decided to try using it as a desktop product, now that I'm doing more "office" type tasks. Those elements I found very difficult, as described in my original post. Some stuff I figured out, after fooling around with config files. Other things I just couldn't fix. An example is the fact that when you're using OpenOffice Calc and try to save a file to an SMB share, it pops up windows about not being able to save a backup copy of the file. Yes, I checked all the permissions. Yes, I mounted the SMB share both by using Gnome's built-in smb:// interface and just sticking it in fstab. No, I don't have time to go through OOo's source code and fix the bug. I have a job.
Just installing the thing and getting a good set of apps on it took about 8 hours. I followed a guide posted online. It worked well, but that's 8 hours I'll never get back.
I think people are fooling themselves when they say people are just more familiar with Windows. As between Windows and OSX, I can accept that argument, since in my experience OSX works pretty well. Gnome and KDE are a different story. It's not just familiarity. It's the fact that they have serious bugs and problems that affect everyday users and make using them really hard.
Re:Windows monopoly is secure (Score:3, Informative)
I have used a Linux desktop for the last 5 years, starting with a retail copy of Mandrake and knowing almost nothing about Linux/Unix. While there have been problems, it has not overall, been any more hassle than Windows. This is why people suspect you of trolling - your experience is so much worse than ours or that of anyone we know that it seems highly improbable.
and try to save a file
Re:Energy is being lost to the universe (Score:3, Informative)
I have a job, a car I work on in spare time, a girlfriend, and volunteer work I do. I still have time to use linux. Linux works for me. I do gaming on it, host my own webserver, office, chat, and everything else you do on your workstation probably.
I don't see the problem. People act like Linux is the most complicated OS ever. I guess they just don't know how to use the tools included in linux. It makes sense anyw
Re:Windows monopoly is secure (Score:2, Informative)
They are right.
Open Office's interface is horrible. Inconsistent. 2.0 is an improvement, but what wouldn't be an improvement? I remember when Sun first released Star Office for free. It was a decent alternative to MS Office at the time.
Back in what, 1998?
It wasn't even a fully featured replacement then. OOo has gotten better, but it still needs a ton of work.
This is not even mentioning that MS just revolutionized the enti
Re:Windows monopoly is secure (Score:2)
In what way? MS Office certainly has an inconsistent interface. You will find display properties under the file menu in MS Office for godsake. It makes absolutely NO logical sense. I have found the Open Office menus to be very consistent. Perhaps the difference is that I never bothered to memorize the menu layout in MS Office, instead I use the 'lets look where that feature should logically be located'. What scares me is that I am able to guess where featu
Re:Windows monopoly is secure (Score:5, Insightful)
Great for servers. Terrible for desktops. And I don't even want to imagine taking support calls from my employees using Linux. It's hard enough to walk someone through "simple" things in Windows, much less Linux.
I can only imagine the call:
Me: "Yea, so go in and edit your
them: "What do you mean edit?"
Me: "Open Gedit, and modify the file"
them: "So how do I open Gedit?"
Me: (sigh) "I quit"
I am just now starting to see most people grasp the concept of files and directories. And that's people who have been working on "business" computers for most of their adult lives. Never underestimate how clueless the typical computer user is and always overestimate how much time you have to spend with them to do the simplest things.
Re:Windows monopoly is secure (Score:3, Informative)
Let the clueless use Windows, I don't care. Just don't say that that is the entire measure of what constitutes "ready for the desktop".
Personally I don't feel at ease in Windows because there _isn't_ a simple text file I can edit by hand to make something do exactly what I want.
At the software company I work for, 80%+ of the people run Linux on their desktops, and it works fine. Just that the clueless need something limited, doesn't mean that the more complex stuff out there is bad. It just means it's not
Re:Windows monopoly is secure (Score:2)
Having used Linux almost exclusively for many years, for both personal, employment and our own business, and having used both Open Office and Word/Excel extensively for business and personal communications and analytics, I can say without reservation that Word is a steaming heap
Re:Windows monopoly is secure (Score:5, Insightful)
Your file association problems are probably a result of Gnome's overzealous dumbing down of its features. I suggest sticking with KDE. At least none of the Linux file associations have trashed hundreds of thousands of systems due to security holes with buggy file association auto-launching the way Windows has.
Re:Windows monopoly is secure (Score:3, Insightful)
This is a red herring. OS X also uses samba for SMB shares and there are never any issues reading/writing from any application (that i have encountered)
Re:Windows monopoly is secure (Score:2)
What's difficult about right clicking and choosing "Properties" -> "Open With"?
As for you other experiences, if that was typical do you t
Re:Spot the dinosaur (Score:2)
And of the two, I'm guessing that Windows makes up the far greater share.
If MS lost significant "mind-share" to online apps to the detriment of Office, I have a feeling they'd still be in pretty good shape.
Re:Spot the dinosaur (Score:2)
Re:Spot the dinosaur-NOT YET (Score:2)
Mar 30th 2006 | REDMOND
This was published just under 11 months ago. Has anything significant changed with Microsoft yet? Not that I've noticed. Vista still hasn't shipped. Apple hasn't gained anything significant in market-share, and is shrinking by some estimates. Dell still sells the most name brand PC's. The Sun rises in the east, and sets in the west. And Microsoft has billions of profits each quarter.
The upshot? When someone predicts what's going to be happening soon in im
Re:Spot the dinosaur (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Spot the dinosaur (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Spot the dinosaur (Score:2)
-nB
Re:Spot the dinosaur (Score:2)
Re:Spot the dinosaur (Score:3, Informative)
Vista (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Vista (Score:5, Funny)
No. Vista is due out every year, so the increased marketing costs should already be accounted for.
Re:Vista (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't think it has much to do with Vista. I think analysts are right in believing this has to do with an oncoming battle for the online market. MS has been trying for it for several years now. I can see them pushing harder once Vista is (finally) out the door.
Re:Vista (Score:3, Insightful)
I'll believe it when I see it.
There's nothing new in the MS pipeline. MS loves vaporware, and lately MS hasn't been able to execute.
Even at the top of it's game, MS would have trouble dealing with the current landscape, and MS is most definitely not at the top of its game right now.
If MS didn't have huge marketshare and a huge pile of cash they'd be in serious trouble. As it is, MS can coast nearly indefinitely.
But stop with the "MS is going to kill everyone else 'real-soon-now'". It's
bullshit,
Re:Vista (Score:2)
And? MS does not really make money off of new versions of Windows (AFAIK). Most licenses for Windows are OEM licenses and its just "what comes with the computer".
Office updates, on the other hand, makes MS money. Especially if the file formats change.
Granted, they might make more money off of Vista because people might buy it 2 or 3 times to get the version they want.
Maybe they gave up the battle (Score:3, Funny)
Or maybe they are just planning on migrating services to Linux [microsoft.com]? Where their announced expenses 5-20% higher than expected?
Can I Do This? (Score:2)
Re:Can I Do This? (Score:2)
It's one thing to predict increased expenses, and it's another to predict increased income.
Microsoft is doing the former.
But, to answer your question 'literally', sure you can predict a doubling of your income. But it's probably unlikely you'll actually succeed.
Need login? bugmenot is your friend (Score:2, Informative)
Mods? parent is not a troll (Score:2)
I learned about bugmenot from a similar post years ago and use it regularly.
Re:Mods? parent is not a troll (Score:2)
It seems n00bs with mod points don't read the fucking faqs and need to feel important by modding people down, and when they see "BugMeNot" rather than fucking googling they assume you're insulting somebody and act in accordance with their ignorance and inferiority complexes. But then, that's just my guess.
No no no - wrong conclusion (Score:2, Interesting)
Or they could be spending more money on developing Vista
Or they don't really think they have a chance in their feud with the European union after all...
There are more options than "prepping up for war"...
Re:No no no - wrong conclusion (Score:4, Interesting)
Microsoft is betting on online services (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Microsoft is betting on online services (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Microsoft is betting on online services (Score:2)
I mean, you write as though Microsoft hasn't built itself into a major multinational corporation from nothing, or brought vast wealth to its principals.
Re:Microsoft is betting on online services (Score:2)
Its just a shame they haven't brought principles to their vast wealth.
Re:Microsoft is betting on online services (Score:3, Interesting)
HAHA You almost had me going. You made it sound almost as if the company wasn't started by a wealthy individual from a wealthy family with almost limitless startup capital. And then your post would almost seem to imply that Microsoft had become a major mulinational corporation through good business practices instead of lies, theft, and where those failed l
Re:Microsoft is betting on online services (Score:3, Informative)
And none of their products break even. Office and Windows turn profits. The rest return very heavy losses. Open
Re:Microsoft is betting on online services (Score:3, Informative)
That's *precisely* the reason that investors are getting jumpy about MSFT. MSFT is still priced as a growth stock and Microsoft isn't growing. Microsoft keeps promising that its non-Windows non-Office investments are going to pay off, but for the most part they haven't. Many of Microsoft's investors would rather see the money that currently is being routed into black holes routed into their pockets instead.
Re: (Score:2)
Xbox 360? (Score:2)
They are already losing this war (Score:5, Interesting)
From the end of TFA:
This may of course change in the future, but I somehow doubt they can touch Google or Yahoo. The whole race for the crown is about the search based ads, not about who uses which search engine. So Microsoft has not only to get a lot of users to use MSN search as their standard search engine, they also have to convince all the advertisers that their system works at least as good or better than those from Google or Yahoo/Overture.
When Microsoft entered a market late in the past, they always could leverage their market position. It was easier to use the already installed IE then to download another browser, it was easier to use Windows Media Player than to download and install RealPlayer or Quicktime. If Microsoft had no leverage in the market, they used their money: They bought shares in cable companies, started cooperations with mobile phone makers or massively subsidized XBOX/360.
But what could they use this time? Desktop search integrated into Vista? Standard search in IE7? Lower prices for advertisers? Most likely all, but nothing will give them a real advantage. They will have to really compete and innovate this time, and that is not something they are good at.
Re:They are already losing this war (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes but you could easily and logically carry that to the next step and say "because MSN search will be the default home page in IE7 they will draw a number of users who simply find it easiest to keep it that way". Heck, my Mom used IE for a couple of years before she realized she could even change the homepage. I would guess that
Re:They are already losing this war (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, but this is (as you stated) already the case: msn.com as the standard IE startpage features a "Search the Web" field at the top of the page. If this would be sufficient, MSN/Microsoft search would already be the most popular search engine. But Google managed to catch the top spot. It is m
Re:They are already losing this war (Score:3, Interesting)
Here's the reality. Google isn't just a brand name, it has beco
/etc/hosts.txt (Score:2)
search.msn.com google.com
Re:They are already losing this war (Score:3, Insightful)
You nailed it right there. If you look at IE 7 [microsoft.com] you see they have the search box like Firefox. Instead of Firefox's default search engine being Google, IE7 defaults to MSN Search. With 85% or more of the market satisfied to stick their default browser, what percentage will take the time to change their default search engine in IE7? I don't know the answer, but I'd bet it is less than half. I don't know about you, but I always use the search box
Re:They are already losing this war (Score:3, Interesting)
Not sure if that was a Google or MS feature, but pretty cool and makes switching very easy. Though since I've gone back to the site I haven't seen the message again, so it may just be a one time thing.
Re:They are already losing this war (Score:2)
If they don't fix that and a few dozen other annoyances (asinine repetitive
Re:They are already losing this war (Score:2)
How? (Score:2)
Re:How? (Score:2)
The indicators consist of more than just an increase in Microsoft's spending. The price of aircraft carriers, cruise missiles and B-2 Stealth bombers has gone up considerably in recent months.
Microsoft started the battle long ago (Score:3, Insightful)
First round, they tried to steer the web in their direction. Fortunatly open standards kept things under the public's control.
IE7 they're starting to get a little better supporting stuff like AJAX, and PNG transparencies. What i'm seeing is a shift in Microsoft from "Let's make all the rules" to "Let's adopt everything".
Not a long comment, but that's my thoughts on their strategy.
Re:Microsoft started the battle long ago (Score:2)
Re:Microsoft started the battle long ago (Score:2)
Google? wtf? (Score:4, Insightful)
On the other hand, I imagine marketing, shipping, supporting, and even patching a new OS that will be installed on the majority of the world's newest computers will increase costs quite a bit for a company. Let's not forget IE7 and Office Live either.
Bill is Back, Productivity Soars (Score:5, Funny)
It's true.
And to increase productivity, everyone at Microsoft now has their homepages set to
Re:Bill is Back, Productivity Soars (Score:2)
Re:Bill is Back, Productivity Soars (Score:2)
Re:Bill is Back, Productivity Soars (Score:2)
Re:Bill is Back, Productivity Soars (Score:2)
'It's pretty clear that Bill is running the company again,'
Then what is Ballmer doing in the CEO slot?
While the guy has produced some of the best videos on the net ;-) , I don't see what he has done for Microsoft. I still suspect institutional investors are going to be pushing for changes given the lackluster stock performance, let alone after the recent hit to the stock price.
How long until the "Ballmer announces retirement" headline appears?
Re:Bill is Back, Productivity Soars (Score:2)
http://blog.monkeymethods.org/2005/01/bill-gates-
Google's market share (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Google's market share (Score:2)
Microsoft has never dominated any market but desktops and "office productivity" applications. And they entered those markets decades ago.
Re:Google's market share (Score:2)
And in our business news... (Score:2)
More details on this and other news at 11am.
Re:And in our business news... (Score:2)
Not really (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not really (Score:2)
And I feel
And I feel like I just got home
And I feel
Quicker than a ray of light she's flying
Quicker than a ray of light I'm flying
*shudder*
War Cry (Score:5, Funny)
In other news, Google has announced the release of the F-22 Raptor Beta(TM) program which allows for anyone with an internet account to remotely control an F-22 fighter. Anti-war groups have expressed a fear that teenagers remotely flying armed warplanes could pose a threat to world peace. Google responded by stating that the weapons systems are locked out except when over the testing range at Latitude 47.6 by Longitude -122.1.
Re:War Cry (Score:2)
Maybe they really do have an M-5 multitronic controlled tank.
More expenses? I have a couple of guesses (Score:4, Interesting)
1. More money to lobbyists and politicians
2. More money for lawyers in more lawsuits and appeals
3. Start paying down the fines in EU that won't go away any other way.
Re:More expenses? I have a couple of guesses (Score:2)
I for one welcome our Microsoft overlords (Score:3, Funny)
Google is only one front, there are many others... (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Launch the most expensive product in your history (in terms of development dollars)
2. Try to prevent nearly-free server operating systems from eating your lunch
3. Pay off the EU fine (just a paltry $700 million or so)
4. Launch a new version of your flagship application (Office Vista?)
5. Stem the losses from your flagship gaming appliance (Xbox360)
6. Make your Longhorn into steak
7. Continue to avoid the wrath of various litigation efforts, some which you will lose...
And there are many more, but these are sufficient to need to build a war chest, Google's success notwithstanding.
You're guessing too much (Score:2)
Offsetting profits (Score:2)
Say Goodbye To The Xbox 360 (Score:3, Interesting)
But the lack of growth means Microsoft is having to spend more and more of its large amounts of cash on:
1) Dividend increases
2) Stock buybacks
When you have around 10-11 billion shares issued to fuel your growth over the past couple of decades that ends up being many, many billions of dollars the company needs to keep spending every year just to keep shareholders from dumping the company and putting their money in real growth companies, like Google.
The Xbox project has been the number one financial sore spot for the company for the past five years. The financial press has been wondering when a grownup is going to take charge up there in Redmond and clean house for the company. It sounds like Microsoft is finally starting that process.
The days of the company throwing billions of dollars at marketplace failures like the Xbox and Xbox 360 are going to be coming to an end. Microsoft's core business monopolies are now no longer just being chipped away at but under direct assault. It will be interesting to see Microsoft awoken. The Ballmer era of the past five years or so has had the company acting like a aging and bumbling fool.
Cue "Ride of the Valkyries" (Score:4, Funny)
This is stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just random bullshit speculation, might it just be that microsoft is in the middle of some of the largest product launches in their history, with SQL server, new development tools, a huge new Operating system, new web browsers, and a new website www.live.com.
I suppose it would just be too logical that they might be spending money marketing and supporting all these huge new endeavors.
Re:This is stupid (Score:2)
Or maybe it is just to pay off all those shills we keep hearing about!
Intersting effect on the stock too... (Score:4, Informative)
[url]http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060428/microsoft.htm
Almost makes MSFT look like a value stock... (That is, if you can evalutate MS on technical merits and not knee-jerk "Linux r00ls M$ SuX0rs!!!" criteria.)
However, I personally wonder if Mac OS X won't take a larger chunk out of MS in the coming future... What do you guys see in the crystal ball for Microsofts Future?
Re:Intersting effect on the stock too... (Score:2)
MS-originated technical merits? wow thats a slim book. And regardless of how you choose to spin it... Linux (and Opensource in general) IS always better in price and frequently better in quality than anything MS has originated.
Re:Intersting effect on the stock too... (Score:2)
Well, I was reffering to stock prices here and modes of investment, as there are limited options for investing in Linux, like RHAT and LNUX and such. So, I should have included "business" as one of the technical merits.
However, I must also include a great sig of a poster here that reads: "Linux is only free if your time is worthless." because it is pretty much true. Note, I don't disl
Re:Intersting effect on the stock too... (Score:2)
Well i also work 100% with Linux today and from my point of view Linux is always easier to setup, takes half the time and is much easier and cheaper to maintain. People take for granted that linux is harder to use than Windows and other comercial software.
Re:Intersting effect on the stock too... (Score:2)
Well i also work 100% with Linux today and from my point of view Linux is always easier to setup, takes half the time and is much easier and cheaper to maintain. People take for granted that linux is harder to use than Windows and other comercial software.
I agree, however, the point of the guy's sig is that it DOES requre some setup, and it does require some training. I can tell you than in 97 when I first started using Linux I was far more efficent with Window
Re:Interesting effect on the stock too... (Score:3, Insightful)
All my Linux opinions aside, what is there about Microsoft that would project any growth? Vista is late and has had most of the mildly interesting features stripped out. The Office suite is about as bloated and ridiculous as you could possibly make word processing and spreadsheets. I don't see much for revenue there. I don't know if the Xbox has actually made any money yet. There was a bunch of noise about Groove and Ray Ozzie a while back, but we haven't
Or... (Score:2)
Or just buy them outright!
They are going to cut off Google's air supply (Score:2, Troll)
War on Google? (Score:2)
Re:War on Google? (Score:2)
Microsoft Boot-Camp (Score:2)
GSH: Let me hear your war cry!
SB: Developers!
GSH:Bullshit, I didnt buy it!
SB: developers, Developers! Developers Developers Developers Developers DEVELOPERS!!!!!!
GSH: Bullshit! Sound off like you've got a pair!
SB: I WILL FUCKING KILL GOOGLE!!!
GSH: Work on it.
Just some more marketing. (Score:2)
Hmmm. It seems that that...... (Score:2)
And Their Stock Price Takes the Hit! (Score:4, Informative)
Shares in Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) slid more than 11 percent on Friday, their biggest drop in more than five years, after the software giant said earnings would be hurt by increased investments aimed at fending off rivals such as Google Inc. ... The move shocked Wall Street, which had hoped to benefit from the company's biggest product releases in years, with its Vista operating system and Office 2007 scheduled for January. ... "This is still a company that is extremely profitable. What people are worried about is whether that ever flows through ... to the benefit of shareholders, or does the company spend that money," said Charles Di Bona, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.
No doubt disspointing reviews of Vista and DRM'd content are part of the fizzle.
The long predicted downward spiral has begun. Employees are leaving for greener fields, product sucks and the competition is better. It will only get worse for them. They had their chance to fix things back when they promissed to take care of security four (five?) years ago. Instead of fixing, they wasted their time and energy with more anti competitive junk like Bitblocker, Paladium and lock box media. Their efforts to expand into the server market flopped and so will their efforts to expand into the kinds of services they derided back in 2000. Such a spiral could not have happened to a nicer company.
The Microsoft idiots thought they were going to come out swinging and are surprised that people are tired of being punched in the nose.