Windows Decline - Success for the Linux PC
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| If you pick apart the recent set of Microsoft results (Q1/08) you discover
| that sales of Microsoft Windows fell by 24% (from $5.3 billion to $4
| billion). When the PC market worldwide is growing at 12%, a collapse of 24%
| sounds disastrous, but those figures provide a distorted view. The $5.3
| billion figure from a year ago included $1.2 billion of presales prior to
| Vista’s release, which actually took place in the previous quarter. So it is
| more accurate to view it as a revenue decline from $4.1 billion to $4 billion
| (2.4%) in a market that’s growing at around 12%.
|
| [...]
|
| Linux PC market share and growth is difficult to gauge at the best of times.
| I’m not aware of any analyst company measuring units shipped directly, but I
| believe that the growth has now become significant. Figures from
| W3Counter.com, which counts by measuring Internet usage, indicate that Linux
| has undergone 61.6% growth since May of 2007 (from 1.25% to 2.01% of Internet
| users in March of 2008). This is a poor way of measuring numbers of users,
| but nevertheless there is no other explanation for the growth other than:
| Linux PCs are selling.
`----
http://havemacwillblog.com/2008/04/30/the-linux-opportunity-in-the-pc-market/
It's a /relative/ sample, not an absolute number.
Vista Business - boring
,----[ Quote ]
| I was glad to hear Mitch pitching the functionality of the Aero eye candy.
| The eye candy in all recent OS's do add minor functionality improvements, but
| I didn't see ANYTHING that Linux didn't do years ago and on less hardware.
| Someone brought up Apple and asked why Microsoft wasn't pushing ads like
| Apple is and this brought up the fact that Microsoft owns a 25% stake in
| Apple - the implication here is that they're not really competitors as much
| as some would like to believe. The live search presentation didn't impress me
| either, Beagle indexes quite well and Gnome displays content just as slickly
| as Vista's "live icons." It just didn't impress me - thought I think a small
| handfull were seeing this kind of functionality for the first time.
`----
http://www.cookingwithlinux.com/node/94
Recent:
Microsoft Profit Drops; Forecast May Miss Estimates
,----[ Quote ]
| The world's biggest software maker said sales of Windows for PCs sank 24
| percent and revenue from its online advertising unit came in at the low end
| of its projections. Microsoft's report contrasted with positive comments from
| chipmaker Intel Corp. and computer company International Business Machines
| Corp.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft declined $1.60 to $30.20 in extended trading after closing at
| $31.80 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has
| fallen 11 percent this year.
`----
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aQ7_iN1SxJ.c&refer=worldwide
Microsoft sees slide in profits
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7366106.stm
Does Microsoft Need Yahoo Before Its Windows Shatter?
,----[ Quote ]
| And what happens if Windows becomes moot? Microsoft loses the foundation of
| its success–your desktop. If we agree that Google is building its empire
| around your web browser, it’s fair to say that Microsoft has built its empire
| around your operating system. If Microsoft Windows takes a huge hit, the
| company loses that solid foundation. But, if Microsoft can acquire Yahoo, it
| will find itself with a back-up platform–your web browser.
`----
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/04/does-microsoft-need-yahoo-before-its-windows-shatter.html
Microsoft says to borrow money for Yahoo deal
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp said on Monday it may borrow money for the first time in its
| history to fund a portion of its $44.6 billion unsolicited offer for Yahoo
| Inc.
`----
http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUSN0455692920080205
Microsoft's DreamSpark – What a Giveaway
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| The rest of the $44.6bn (£22.3bn) deal would be financed with an undisclosed
| amount of credit.
|
| What that means is that it must squeeze as much money as it can from its
| operations to fund that debt and still pay dividends to shareholders, who
| will be looking for some payback from the Yahoo takeover.
`----
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/microsofts-dreamspark-%E2%80%93-what-giveaway
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