Do YOU work at Microsoft? Um. Are you SURE about that? What is being described as the "biggest round of job cuts" to hit Microsoft for five years is on its way, or so we've been told. The software mammoth “could” unveil staff cuts that were alluded to by chief executive Satya Nadella in his flabby PR-authored communication last week. The cuts are reported to be the biggest in …
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Is this a mistake ... surely if the analyst's expected $17.1 bn and MS made 17.63 bn revenue this is a good thing ?
Does it mean that the analysts were expecting $17.1bn profit not revenue? Although that would mean they saw $4bn instead of $17bn which is a nasty, nasty surprise so doesn't make much sense either.
The wording in the article doesn't make much sense. Some googling gave me this.
http://www.statista.com/statistics/272747/net-profit-by-quarter-of-the-microsoft-corporation/
It would seem the second quarters of 2008 and 2009 are "just like any other quarter" but order has since been restored with Q2 of 2010-2014 netting some 15-25% above the average quarter.
All those who "old fashioned" is a legitimate reason for removing functionality take one step forward.
[sound of machine guns being cocked]
T,FTFY
Just because something is old fashioned doesn't mean it is no longer useful. Computers are tools. Fashion shouldn't matter one whit.
> Some people want something new, whether or not it's better.
That would be the marketing people.
> I want something better, whether or not it's new.
That would be why the tech industry is in trouble. You destroyer of the economy! Why can't you just consume the new stuff like everyone else?
Microsoft has finally seen experienced something never had to cope with before: competition. But instead of actually listening to their fan and customerbase they simply continued doing that which they always did.
So in a time where the economy is already fragile Microsoft started on a "how to tick off your customers" campaign. You see it happening on Windows (Vista being a failure, now Windows 8 which heads down the same road), systems administration (no more TechNet; it may seem like a non-issue now, just give it 6 more months or so...) and of course even their Developers, developers, developers -base. A lot of those, if not the most (I can't tell for sure of course) actually prefer sticking with Visual Studio 2010 and are more than happy to ignore all the modern idiocy (as in: "Look guys, no colours; isn't that MUCH easier to use? Oops, you're right; we'll bring some colours back. Look guys: a new version, we brought most of the colours back. See? We LISTEN to our customers!").
Governments can get away with idiocy like that, and even then only to a certain degree, but a commercial company which is actually heavily depending on their customers for their income?
So yeah, I think its a sad development but I can't say that it really surprises me.
I just hope that the new CEO can put a stop to all the idiocy and roll back some of the recent brain-dead decisions. Provided it's not already too late of course.
Microsoft tended to look at a new competitors product (often a smaller start up or a huge expensive rival) and fix the flaws, make it cheaper/easier to use and do well.
These days they seem to take a competitors idea, add their own huge flaws, try to use it to leverage the Windows OS, make it overpriced and annoying to use.
"Microsoft tended to look at a new competitors product (often a smaller start up or a huge expensive rival) and fix the flaws, make it cheaper/easier to use and do well."
Actually, Microsoft has a long history of forming 'Strategic Partnerships', shafting their partners and kicking them to the curb.
These days, there's not many left that fall for that ruse, so Microsoft has to fall back on its own 'innovation', and we see how well that's working out for them.
"...their fan and customerbase..."
I can deal with customer base, I can deal with technical managers who buy Microsoft systems because of compatibility and legacy requirements and perhaps because of costs, but I'm having real difficulty with the idea of a Microsoft fan.
And it has just occured to me that the absence of actual fans might be the problem that Microsoft has.
The Tramp: sitting in the sun watching the world go by. Haven't seen a Microsoft device yet!
"And it has just occured to me that the absence of actual fans might be the problem that Microsoft has."
At some point, the idea might occur to someone at Microsoft!
The problem with being the default operating system on every computer shipped.
// have an upvote
I think you might be wrong in respect to the lack of Microsoft fans. You'll find quite a few here in the reg, even windows phone fans. Just because you haven't found any in real life it doesn't mean that they don't exist. Just look at the comments and the votes on any windows phone article here.
I've met one, at least (I hope that the fact that he is a phb doesn't disqualify him automatically).
As long as they start at the top I don't mind.
Step forward anyone who thought that METRO was a good idea on the desktop
Step forward those who thought that the Surface-RT was going to sell gazillions
Right, that's most of the marketing department and Balmers 'yes men' gone.
don't forget to take your coats with you when you leave...
Could they loose the KMS / VAMR / licensing experts, no forget that, how about lynch them.
I'm not bitter, not twitching, it's quite simple and its only a few hours to get to know the system from cold and how it interacts with third party firewalls.
I understand that as a company to protect your IP you need to punish those who pay for the licenses.
They need to do something, as all I get on each new version is a bit more resentful of the attempts to wring new money from previously content customers.
"I understand that as a company to protect your IP you need to punish those who pay for the licenses."
It's much more about punishing those that don't pay for your licenses. Hence why the Chinese are so pissed off Windows XP support has ended - and they have banned Windows 8 as they can't crack the licensing...
You may have missed the ironic point, a bit.
I'm not in China and have made it my job to ensure we are studiously compliant on licensing for the last decade or so. One would hope from that my interaction with the OS would be easier than some freeloading type from a distant land. Have you played with KMS VAMR? its probably OK if that's what you do all day but fuck me I hate it for just a few installs of MS server to keep a few things going. I don't want MS server specifically, I want to just be able to get on and do stuff without loosing hours reading up on the latest crap aimed at stopping others.
Pointing out that MS have problems elsewhere does not make me feel good about it but thanks for the information.
"Marketing is the first point of call for any CEO looking to trim the corporate fat."
Incorrect. "Function XXX is the first point of call for any CEO as long as he/she DOES NOT COME FROM Function XXXX"
"$4.17bn profit." Evidently, something has to be done. These are too small profits, people must be fired. How sad. Yes, maybe there is some degree of redundancy between the acquired Nokia mobile division and MS. Seriously doubt that there is 500 million worth of redundancy.
Guess what comes next? Yet another round of "Enterprise customer licensing reviews"....
I don't suppose Microsoft have considered listening to the folks who buy their products and making software and services that those individuals and corporations actually want. Perhaps without a convoluted licensing system and prices that are affordable by all? A volume play, some might say. It worked for them in the past.
I just don't know that pissing away market share and attempting to capture the high-margin end of the market is going to work all that well. They face entrenched high-margin companies like Apple and Oracle on one side, and mad commoditsation by Amazon and Google on the other.
It strikes me then that the only real play is a populist one...so why is that the exact opposite of what they're attempting?
MS are just beginning to realise that the have no viable product for over 90% of their previous userbase. Users don't want Windoze 8 - it's a tacky, unstable, bloated resource-hog that won't run most legacy software and looks like a toddler's toy. Windows 7 nearly got it right, but rather than sort out the problems, they decided to ditch it in favour of their brightly-coloured computer game.
In terms of underlying software issues - their products are still based on the nasty, flawed, unstable NT kernel - they still haven't had a better idea. Unless they wake up, realise where their core business comes from and redesign their offerings from the ground up, they're dead. They just haven't stopped twitching yet.....
MS got rid of the real programming talent in the last round of job cuts (that's where Google got many of theirs). They really have dug themselves a very large hole!
"Users don't want Windoze 8 - it's a tacky, unstable, bloated resource-hog that won't run most legacy software and looks like a toddler's toy."
Well it might look like a toddlers toy, but its rock solid stable and faster and more efficient than any previous version of Windows - or when benchmarked against the latest Ubunto for instance. It also runs almost anything that Windows 7 did.
"their products are still based on the nasty, flawed, unstable NT kernel"
The Windows NT kernel is a hybrid micro kernel - similar to XNU - that potentially allows greater control / seperation / modularity than say a legacy monolithic (for instance Linux) type kernel.
Here's Microsoft's problem:
They try to do what's best for Microsoft instead of doing what would make their customers happy.
But that's not their mistake.
Their mistake is thinking there's a difference.
-- faye kane ♀ girl brain
sexiest astrophysicist you'll ever see naked
After witnessing the great MS successes in the past such as Zune, MS TV etc., getting rid of any of the ex-Nokia people and replacing them with MS drones will mean the success of the buyout will be one great failure....again. It will then propel that less than optimal desktop port of WM8 to the bottom of the heap where it belongs.
Blackberry can only be rubbing their hands with glee.
Microsoft bashing is great fun, and I have partaken of my share of it over the years. But at the end of the day, there's potentially thousands of people who are going to be losing their jobs in what is (in the US at least) still a depressed economy.
Will be interesting to hear who ends up going, but irrespective of that I'll still have sympathy for them.
$600M promised cost savings? Microsoft bought around $2,5B of running costs from Nokia - in form of salaries. There is no savings from patents royalties and also support fees to Nokia were already practically extinct by mid of 2013. How big layoffs we are talking about here? Is Microsoft going to join the 10 000 layoffs high club?
"You know the end is approaching "
You know Microsoft's share price hit the highest its been in well over a decade yesterday?
"Microsoft bought around $2,5B of running costs from Nokia - in form of salaries"
The Nokia mobile division generates revenue also. They were close to break even under Nokia, and considering the stellar YoY growth of Nokia Lumia sales should be profit making by next quarter's results.
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