It's still Micro$oft
Billg's billions keep rolling in
Much to the dismay of Microsoft opponents, the IT giant is forging ahead at full steam despite allegedly being pecked to death by penguins, people switching to Macs and nobody buying Windows Vista. Although some revenue was deferred from October, Microsoft racked up US$14.4 billion in revenue for the last quarter. In overly-strong Kiwi dollars, that's $19.5 billion.
Nothing much in the IT world can keep up with Microsoft in the money stakes. This year, it looks like revenue will be NZ$77 billion with NZ$30 billion income. Google and Apple pale in comparison.
Microsoft reckons it has shipped some twenty million Vista licenses already; while it's early days yet, signs point to Vista nay-sayers being wrong. The demand is there.
The chinks in Microsoft's fiscal armour remain online services and entertainment, with the latter even going backwards by a fifth in the last quarter. It looks like Microsoft is still very much a traditional software company; and, if that's what people want, who can fault MS?
PC World is New Zealand’s top selling computing and technology magazine.
Comments
Yeah, Joe's got a point. Even so, it's a huge amount of money.
Posted by: Juha | May 4, 2007 5:10 PM
Here's another take on Microsoft's "impressive" numbers:
Microsoft Q3 2007 by the Numbers
Joe Wilcox
Microsoft's deferral, which the company took mainly for accounting reasons, has a side benefit of making the Office 2007 and Windows Vista launches look much larger than they really are, contributing to overall 32 percent year-over-year income growth and 72 percent diluted earning-per-share growth. However, while Microsoft realized deferred revenue in the quarter, the sales period is much longer. The deferral largely represents sales since October, when Microsoft started offering the Office 2007 and Vista coupons.
"Last month, Microsoft said it had shipped 20 million Vista licenses. Because the sales are into the channel, it could be another quarter before the full impact of Vista's release can be assessed," Wilcox reports. "But the disparity in PC shipments versus Windows OEMs hints at a larger volume of Vista licenses going into the channel than coming out. Microsoft forecast worldwide PC growth of 10 percent to 12 percent during the quarter. Windows OEM license shipments increased 20 percent, which is contrary to previous quarters where the typical pattern was lower OEM license growth than that of PC shipments. The situation suggests PC manufacturers and retailers may be sitting on a fair bit of stock, if OEM license purchases did exceed actual PC sales."
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/corporate/microsoft_q3_2007_by_the_numbers.html
Posted by: James | April 30, 2007 10:32 AM