N
Nina DiBoy
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/04/25/vista-microsoft-earnings-tech-cx_bc_0426microsoft.html
Burlingame, Calif. -
It's old news that Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista,
is underwhelming. Oh, and late, bloated and buggy. What is news is that
this might actually be a problem for Microsoft Chief Executive Steve
Ballmer and crew.
Not that this is going to stop Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people
), in the near-term, from doing what monopolies do: making big piles of
money. Microsoft will post third-quarter earnings after the market
closes, and analysts expect to see net income of $4.5 billion, or 46
cents a share, up from $3.3 billion, or 29 cents a share for the same
period a year earlier, thanks to the January release of Vista. Wall
Street expects that sales will rise to $13.9 billion from $10.9 billion.
So rather than concentrating on Microsoft's numbers Wednesday afternoon,
pay attention to what the company says about Vista's prospects over its
next fiscal year. It better be good: The company's shares have been flat
for the past five years as it repeatedly delayed the release of Vista,
originally slated for launch in 2003.
Meanwhile longtime rival Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) hit a
gold mine in digital music, and search engine Google (nasdaq: GOOG -
news - people ) evolved into a new threat as it moved from upstart to
online goliath. Microsoft's Xbox console has made life difficult for
Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ), but the money-losing business can't
match Apple's iPod profit spigot.
The traditional fix for Microsoft, of course, has been to use its
ubiquity on the desktop to open up other markets, from Web browsers to
office productivity software. But now it's unclear how that strength on
the desktop will translate into an edge in online advertising, digital
media and Web-based business applications.
And just months after its release, Vista is already looking stale. While
Microsoft fiddled with Vista, competitors such as Apple, Sun
Microsystems (nasdaq: SUNW - news - people ) and Red Hat (nyse: RHT -
news - people ) kept cranking out release after release of their
alternative operating systems.
Ballmer, moreover, soft-peddled Vista's prospects earlier this year.
This may be more than just Microsoft acting coy on all things financial,
as it usually does. PC giant Dell (nasdaq: DELL - news - people ), which
has always loyally jammed Microsoft's latest software into its PCs,
announced earlier this month it will start selling Microsoft's old
operating system, Windows XP, once more.
Dell's announcement aside, Vista will dominate the desktop, of course.
But the desktop has always been the place from which Microsoft can get a
grip on the rest of the computing world. The question: If that strength
has turned into a soft spot, then what?
--
Priceless quotes in m.p.w.vista.general group:
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/kick.html
Most recent idiotic quote added to KICK (Klassic Idiotic Caption Kooks):
"It would be nice if there was a check to see if you were running an
activated/validated version of Windows before you were allowed to post
in any of these news groups. If you're not activated/validated your post
automatically gets deleted.
That would get rid of the Linsux Luzzzzzzzzers once and for all."
"Good poets borrow; great poets steal."
- T. S. Eliot
Burlingame, Calif. -
It's old news that Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista,
is underwhelming. Oh, and late, bloated and buggy. What is news is that
this might actually be a problem for Microsoft Chief Executive Steve
Ballmer and crew.
Not that this is going to stop Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people
), in the near-term, from doing what monopolies do: making big piles of
money. Microsoft will post third-quarter earnings after the market
closes, and analysts expect to see net income of $4.5 billion, or 46
cents a share, up from $3.3 billion, or 29 cents a share for the same
period a year earlier, thanks to the January release of Vista. Wall
Street expects that sales will rise to $13.9 billion from $10.9 billion.
So rather than concentrating on Microsoft's numbers Wednesday afternoon,
pay attention to what the company says about Vista's prospects over its
next fiscal year. It better be good: The company's shares have been flat
for the past five years as it repeatedly delayed the release of Vista,
originally slated for launch in 2003.
Meanwhile longtime rival Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) hit a
gold mine in digital music, and search engine Google (nasdaq: GOOG -
news - people ) evolved into a new threat as it moved from upstart to
online goliath. Microsoft's Xbox console has made life difficult for
Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ), but the money-losing business can't
match Apple's iPod profit spigot.
The traditional fix for Microsoft, of course, has been to use its
ubiquity on the desktop to open up other markets, from Web browsers to
office productivity software. But now it's unclear how that strength on
the desktop will translate into an edge in online advertising, digital
media and Web-based business applications.
And just months after its release, Vista is already looking stale. While
Microsoft fiddled with Vista, competitors such as Apple, Sun
Microsystems (nasdaq: SUNW - news - people ) and Red Hat (nyse: RHT -
news - people ) kept cranking out release after release of their
alternative operating systems.
Ballmer, moreover, soft-peddled Vista's prospects earlier this year.
This may be more than just Microsoft acting coy on all things financial,
as it usually does. PC giant Dell (nasdaq: DELL - news - people ), which
has always loyally jammed Microsoft's latest software into its PCs,
announced earlier this month it will start selling Microsoft's old
operating system, Windows XP, once more.
Dell's announcement aside, Vista will dominate the desktop, of course.
But the desktop has always been the place from which Microsoft can get a
grip on the rest of the computing world. The question: If that strength
has turned into a soft spot, then what?
--
Priceless quotes in m.p.w.vista.general group:
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/kick.html
Most recent idiotic quote added to KICK (Klassic Idiotic Caption Kooks):
"It would be nice if there was a check to see if you were running an
activated/validated version of Windows before you were allowed to post
in any of these news groups. If you're not activated/validated your post
automatically gets deleted.
That would get rid of the Linsux Luzzzzzzzzers once and for all."
"Good poets borrow; great poets steal."
- T. S. Eliot
Most of us do not.