Apple had a massive quarter, beating its own internal estimates, and yet still saw its stock slide following yesterday’s earnings call.
You know who had it much, much worse, though? One-time rival Microsoft, which reported its highest-ever net loss for the quarter after writing off billions for the failure of its Nokia handset division, and witnessing plummeting demand for PCs.
Microsoft announced its net loss of $3.2bn alongside revenues of $22.18bn, representing a 5 percent decline versus the previous quarter. Revenue rose by $6.7 billion to $93.5 billion for the full year, although net profit fell to $12.2 billion.
Earlier this month, Microsoft announced plans to write off $7.6bn for its Nokia experiment, which represented a botched attempt to catch up with Apple and Google in the smartphone stakes. The company also announced the cutting of 7,800 jobs, mainly among Nokia’s Finland-based staff.
More than ever, Microsoft’s got to be pinning its hopes on Windows 10, which arrives July 29.
Source: Telegraph
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
16 responses to “Win-doh! Microsoft announces its largest ever net loss”
Two things… 1) Win-doh! ??? If you can’t find a catchy title play on words, isn’t it better not to use one at all? I’m not aware of any MS product called “Window”… “Windows” yes… “Window”…. no. Complete fail. 2) So Microsoft is pinning it’s hope on an operating system they’re giving to most people for free? Yes enterprise clients will still have to pay, but isn’t their operating system a very small segment of their revenue generation? Also, you could cite someone within Microsoft who has either stated this to be so, or even inferred it.
“…” is actually a single character that you can type on your keyboard. It is not the period key pressed three times. Also, an ellipses only has three dots, not four. Also, “it’s” is a conjunction for “it is”. It’s not a possessive form of “it”. I used it correctly in my last sentence. Complete fail. Hyperbole is fun.
That’s really the best you could come up with was to correct his grammar? Aren’t you a witty one.
“”…” is actually a single character that you can type on your keyboard. It is not the period key pressed three times.”
It’s actually not… You see that? Yep, that’s your magical character and it looks very similar to “…”. So you can continue being a douche, correcting people’s grammar on random sites, and using HoldAlt + 0133 vs. actually responding to the argument and using a quick three periods.
Maybe it’d be better to not be a douche?
Well I, for one, thank you. I’ve learned something. :) Did I type 4 dots? Ouch… oops…….. now that was untold amount of dots……………………… damn I did it again. YOu are absolutely correct about the it’s… super bad on my part… I’m usually good on that… “it’s nice to be right” as as opposed to “Microsoft is pinning t its hope on…. ” Good call… and a good reminder. I appreciate it. :)
I am a long time Windows user. However I have switched mostly to MacBooks except for two gaming PCs. As many know, gaming PCs get frequent upgrades. Getting Windows re-activated after an upgrade is a huge nightmare. My memories of using Windows (ever since version 2.1) are mostly bad. Its not just the poor quality of Windows 95, ME and Vista, but also because Microsoft treats everyone as a thief. I have bought many genuine copies of Windows and still get treated poorly. MS has a lot to learn before they get their customers back.
Yawn. Microsoft posted a loss because they decided to take their poison all at once now rather than drag it out over several quarters (the usual practice). Meanwhile, the next 2-4 quarters will be huge for Microsoft. Not so much because Windows 10 will be so great, but because people who avoided upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8 will be forced to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 because they will have no choice: Microsoft has ended mainstream support for that version.
Their “giving it away for free” is mostly a gimmick. The truth is that home users almost never bought Windows. They used whatever version shipped with their PCs. Home users DID pay the $200 for Windows upgrades back when Microsoft was dominant during the late 90s/2000s but that has been over with for years and Microsoft has long adapted. Long story short: Nadella informed Microsoft that the 90s/2000s are never coming back, and that PC operating systems are no longer going to be the main profit driver for Microsoft anymore. Microsoft is going to be primarily an enterprise/cloud company, and their consumer products are going to be platform-independent applications. Basically, they are shifting to the Google strategy, except that Google’s enterprise/cloud business is tiny.
“Plummeting demand for PCs” … because no one is going to buy a Windows 8 PC when Windows 10 is about to come out. That has always been the case. I personally just might wait 6 months and get a very good Windows 8 PC (for gaming/media server purposes) on clearance, and then get my free upgrade to Windows 10 immediately.
Hm… I don’t think its as simple as “Yawn”. They’ve been taking allot of poison lately. And that poison could do allot of damage. If it hasn’t already.
Nobody cares about Windows anymore. That is the point.
so what you are saying is that even thought they had a quarterly loss, they still made profits? Sounds smart on MS’s part if you think about it. They could have dragged the Nokia loss over the next few quarters, but that’d give news sites such as this one something to talk about.
That said, I wanna see how their next few quarters are going to be like considering they’d not have any major loss anywhere.
Well if it’s anything and I mean anything like any incarnation of previous MS OS’s then it will fall flat on it’s proverbial face.
Idiotic piece of journalism. Microsoft wrote off Nokia as a loss, look at what they made EXCLUDING the Nokia write off to see they had a healthy quarter.
A much more appropriate article would of been apple avoiding to mention the Apple Watches performance or the fact that the iPad market is declining Rapidly.
Either stop writing about trash or see your audience decline….
I totally agree with your central point, but I’ll keep coming back here for the laughs.
Microsoft bought Nokia for strategic reasons, ie to ensure Windows Phone OS didn’t die. Which it hasn’t. 100m phones and a 10% share in Europe isn’t trivial, plus mobile is critical strategically.
Even Apple sheep must have heard of Nokia.
The acquisition achieved it’s main goal, even if Microsoft has decided not to be a major hardware manufacturer.
The real story is that they could easily afford to write down the whole acquisition in one quarter.
Microsoft has both feet in the grave. Wind-Dohs going down in flames. Corporate licensing and government contracts are keeping them afloat. Until they too are converted to Apple like any sane being has already done.
I’m a Mac guy. I’ve been using Macs since 1989 in our graphic design business and personally. That said, I had high hopes for Windows 8. I like to have a Windows PC in the office to ensure our web designs look good on Windows browsers, so I bought a Win8 PC about a year ago, anxious to try out the OS, and hoping for Microsoft to finally hit their stride in making the OS more intuitive, user-friendly and fun. After 3 days, the PC went back to the store I bought it from. Win8, despite having YEARS to be refined and streamlined, was even MORE confusing and difficult to work with! I felt stymied at every turn, despite my familiarity with WinXP. Everything I wanted to do seemed hidden. Turns out I needed a special swipe or mouse move just to make the menus show up — now that’s intuitive. Trying to find the Start menu was equally as confusing (how dumb could they be to hide this?). I keep trying to give Microsoft the chance to knock my socks off with their OS. After almost 20 years I’m still waiting. Maybe the OS designers will finally figure out what “intuitive” means and build it into Win10. I can keep hoping.
the last chance for Microsoft is leaving the dock now! uness they get win10 to be SOLID, PERFORMING AND SECURE ( generally ms fks up on at least two of these ) THEY ARE DOOMED….investros are going to step in much much more furiosly than before so MS management best HIRE TOP TALENT NOW and LISTEN EVER SO CLOSELY TO CUSTOMERS AND NOT BS MARKETING ….
at this point a “near miss” like Nokia WILL BE FATAL, even and ESPECIALLY for Microsoft!
IBM still makes lots of money too. But nobody looks to IBM as a tech leader. IBM does some great research. Don’t get me wrong. Microsoft is the new IBM. They are tech players but not leaders and never will be again.
Microsoft is stuck in the past with its licensing model. And it can’t unchain itself. Kevin Turner is STILL COO at Microsoft. That should tell you all you need to know about how little that company has or can change.