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Workstations from a Post-PC Company
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[Shawn Miller] “It will be interesting to see in the coming years how much of Microsoft’s profits shift between its Server &Tool, Business and Online Services Businesses… which are all up from last year BTW.”
It could actually be a very bad sign if Server & Tools gets a larger share of MSFT’s income if it is because overall income fell with a decline in their best-earning divisions, Business (which includes Office, Exchange, & SharePoint after all) and Windows. Rumors of Office for iPad have been floating around, and I think it would be very wise for Microsoft to embrace other client platforms for Office, as that is now its most significant single division in terms of revenue and profits.
Best,
Andy -
“No he means that without the current revenues streams in the low three figures from the word processing, spreadsheet end, and the low three figures revenue from the OS end, Microsoft is going to be gutted. That’s my point.”
No, I got that. I just don’t share your opinion, profits may be down this quarter and iPhones may indeed be slightly cutting into Windows’ marketshare. But, iDevices aren’t the end of Microsoft anymore than desktop computing was the end of IBM.
“You could argue that all MS are now is a creaky historical business OS, an over complex word processor and a spreadsheet.”
You could… but man, would that make you look ignorant to anyone that remotely understands the reach and scale of the company. 🙂
Shawn
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[Shawn Miller] ” I just don’t share your opinion,”
but thats not an opinion – those two products – office and windows account for 70% of microsofts revenue. Windows is about to try and be an embedded tablet OS, and Office, in some form, is going to have to bow to appstore pricing norms in order to survive.
Microsoft is about to get financially gutted you know?
And I wasn’t so much saying that the iphone was putting a dent in MS marketshare – its the iPad thats doing that, or iOS really, what I meant was that the iphone alone in Apple generates more revenue than all of Microsoft. Microsoft is like a smaller, old company with a flat shareprice, a boated office suite, 2% of the mobile market, and 0% of the tablet market, a tablet market they expect to start using windows explorer, with the ribbon, with their fingers.
It’s just.. funny the way things have worked out.
http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics -
“It could actually be a very bad sign if Server & Tools gets a larger share of MSFT’s income if it is because overall income fell with a decline in their best-earning divisions, Business (which includes Office, Exchange, & SharePoint after all) and Windows.”
I’m not sure I implied that… I’m just suggesting that it will be interesting to see how Microsoft’s online, business and server/tools divisions fair in the face of this mobility revolution. But I think my main point stands… MS cares less about your device, and more about how you create and share data on that device. Further, I don’t think the iPad/iPhone are the end of the desktop, at least not in the enterprise.
“Rumors of Office for iPad have been floating around, and I think it would be very wise for Microsoft to embrace other client platforms for Office, as that is now its most significant single division in terms of revenue and profits.”
Microsoft has always developed Office for Mac, why would iPad/iPhone be any different?
Shawn
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Granted he is the CEO, but the thing those post PC comments from Tim Cook made clear is that the ghost of Steve Jobs is providing the marketing script for the time being. Mobile is changing more dramatically than desktop and workstations in the last few years. Maybe it’s time to re-envsion what makes a workstation and workgroup devices and software. I think there are people in Apple who love that challenge.
Changes are usually incremental (evolution) and seem to take forever, but once in a while they take a generational leap (the revolution). The Mac Pro is largely a series of incremental changes from the Power Mac. But many technology improvements (such as SSD and Thunderbolt and things we know not) may mean we are on the cusp of a generational change in hardware, infrastructure, and enabling software. More than any other large player, Apple has the resources to help bring this about. It can’t just be about money. It never was just about the money for Steve. Do they have the desire? I think you would.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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“but thats not an opinion – those two products – office and windows account for 70% of microsofts revenue.”
Okay, let’s say this statement is a provable fact.
“Windows is about to try and be an embedded tablet OS…”
Embedded and tablet versions of Windows have been available since before there was an iPad. The touch version of Windows was in develpment before many people knew what touch technology was. Win 8 wasn’t a huge surprise in that regard.
“and Office, in some form, is going to have to bow to appstore pricing norms in order to survive.”
Inexpensive versions of Office already start from about $150. How does the appstore change any of this?
“Microsoft is about to get financially gutted you know?”
I still think this is an opinion… unless you can prove otherwise. 🙂
Shawn
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