Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 7th May 2006 19:17 UTC
Sometimes, the smallest of things can amaze me. I'm a sucker for details, which probably lies at the base of my slightly obsessive-compulsive traits of keeping things organized, tidy, aligned, and neat. It's great to see some companies are suckers for details too. Unless the details just become too insignificant. Note: Sunday Eve Column. Short, this week, though.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Please provide some sort of source for this.
Also, they are in MANY different markets, so it's hard to make any conclusions about any particular market they are in.
Anyway, my original reply was just addressing the assertino that the cost of Windows goes up every time to pay for IE. OEM has gone up once apparently (and will with Vista?), and retail hasn't, so that argument is kind of weak.
Edited 2006-05-07 23:33
Member since:
2005-07-06
It all depends on how you measure it. There is no right answer. Say it costs $1M to develop a program and you sell 1M copies. Your cost is $1/copy. Is it now paid for? Say you now sell another 9M copies. Is your cost now a dime, or is it free since the first 1M copies covered the costs?
One thing for certain, MS revenues are rising many times faster than their engineering expenses and their margins are growing. It used to cost them $100M to get $1B in revenue. Now it costs them $400M to get $15B in revenue. Have their costs fallen? It depends on how you count.