“Microsoft today announced record second-quarter revenue of $19.95 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2010. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $8.17 billion, $6.63 billion and $0.77 per share, respectively.”
But the decrease in Windows sales is no unnoticeable. Their flagship products are moving from the desktop to entertainment sector.
Maybe bringing Windows to ARM is done in anticipation of this.
But the decrease is in dollar value rather than actual units – correct? that could be explained through the growth of Windows variants at a lower price thus lower profit margin. Personally I think that Microsoft would be better off developing a broader middleware than trying to flog the same old two products over and over again – how about an alternative to Adobe Creative Suite
Microsoft Expression Studio and Office Publisher provides most of the functionality in Adobes suite, except a good alternative to Photoshop.
You got to be kidding or does not use options beside that basic ones.
I agree that they are good for regular use, but they aren’t on same level.
Developing a solid middleware stack aint that easy and the competitors are fierce. Besides there already are well established Windows compatible middleware vendors out there.
There is always buying out Quark – work on Expression Studio and maybe develop a home grown Photoshop replacement. Expand the games side of the business, maybe buy out some niche product areas such as Solidworks etc.
From what I saw on their stock board it is due to them having taken a charge on it last quarter. Other wise their income numbers for W7 would not have been down.