Posted on 01/07/2014 7:50:09 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Regardless of how stalled Microsoft Corporation’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) MSFT +0.69% business seems to Wall Street analysts, the fact of the matter is that this company powers 90.73 percent of the Desktops and Notebooks around the world. Its nearest competitor at second place is Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) AAPL +0.14% Mac operating system which has only 7.54 percent market share.
Microsoft released its latest upgrade to the much discussed Windows 8 operating system, Windows 8.1, in October of 2013. Last month, during December, devices running the Windows 8 and 8.1 crossed over 10 percent market share for the first time. A month earlier, in November, it only had a 9.30 percent market share. Effectively, last month Windows 8.x versions gained over 1.49 percent market share, reported The Next Web.
The gain represents a fundamental shift in the Windows userbase, as Windows XP users were forced to abandon the platform as Microsoft is discontinuing support and security updates for XP from April 8, 2014.
As Windows 8.1 was offered as a free upgrade, it will not provide Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) MSFT +0.69% with any revenue gain. However, discontinuing Windows XP will eventually drive the sales of Windows 8.x operating system further up over the course of next few quarters. Back in the first quarter of 2013, Microsoft’s revenues went up 24 percent (in the first three months) compared to the previous year’s first three months; as Windows 8 sales pushed revenues of the Windows division alone to US$ 5.7 billion from US$ 4.633 billion. However, overall as a company, Microsoft’s revenue has been declining since the start of 2013.
In the third quarter of 2013, Microsoft generated only US$ 18.53 billion revenue from its operations, indeed a sharp decline.
However, Microsoft has maintained profitability since the sharp decline it observed during the first two quarters of 2012. As of the third quarter of 2013, its EBITDA has gone down amid declining operating revenue but earnings per share is still at US$ 0.63.
However, sales estimates are looking good for Microsoft this year, the current estimate is set at US$ 25.05 billion by the end of 2014. Microsoft has a lot of new guns to fire this year in order to generate revenue instead of solely relying on its Windows division. The Surface line of products is doing well, as its sales doubled in the third quarter of 2013. Moreover, Microsoft is partnering up with various low cost phone manufacturers in the emerging market segment to sell Windows Phone 8 based cheap phones. Rumors include a deal between Microsoft and Micromax, an Indian phone manufacturer, and even Sony may have joined the bandwagon.
Based on the growth forecast, Zacks just upgraded the company from “underperform” on December 19, 2013. If anyone is looking for investing in an established blue-chip company with growth in mind during 2014, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a good option right now, as the 1 year forward P/E is only at 12.86.
“Home computing will revert to the ‘thin client’ model.”
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Windows 8 is forced on every computer you see at the store. If people had a choice then Windows 8 would be gone from the market.
I find a touch screen OS on a desktop to be horribly inefficient
The most annoying thing to me: "There's a piece of lint on the screen. Crap! Now the computer's gone and done something!"
Bravo!
:) Reminds me of the transition from using DOS to using Windows Explorer for file management. Click/swipe/whoops... where did it go? When you're walking a neophyte through something on the phone, at the DOS prompt it was easy enough to instruct someone how to do something.
I personally think that every school kid should spend their first year on a computer at the DOS/CMD prompt. It leads to a much greater understanding of the file system.
Where else do the old, but satisfied and content XP users go?
While it's in Microsoft's interest to help them make the jump, the easiest forced "solution" to this Microsoft generated problem is to buy Win 8 or 8.1.
Or do they try the older Win 7 Pro? Or bail on Microsoft altogether?
I'd like to see if/how those numbers are changing before calling Win 8 a success. Otherwise, it's sorta like voting republican these days because there's no place else to go.
RE: I’d like to see if/how those numbers are changing before calling Win 8 a success. Otherwise, it’s sorta like voting republican these days because there’s no place else to go.
Well, shouldn’t the same argument apply to LINUX too?
Windows 7 is serving me well on both my laptop and desktop.I think I’ll skip 8,just as I skipped Vista and ME.
RE: If people had a choice then Windows 8 would be gone from the market.
But they DO have a choice. They can go LINUX or the Apply OS.
TYPO, I meant the APPLE OS.
I will keep XP but not for online usage. That will be done via a VM running Linux Mint. XP will be for utility use only. So far it has worked great.
My outlook 2003 runs fine in POP in Windows 8.1
Got a Win 8 desktop machine on sale, with a coupon for $199.
Free upgrade to 8.1 went just fine.
Right out of the box, you can click the Desktop tab and get to a familiar screen that looks just like Win 7. Except for the awful ugly opaque light blue theme, it works just fine.
The reason Win 8 is catching up is because, in reality, it’s the only Windows you can get on a new machine.
Windows 8.x has not, and never will be, adopted by the enterprise and small and medium businesses. The only reason it has sold at all is because it has been foisted on a hapless and ignorant public by big-box retailers beholden to Microsoft.
The primary offerings of business class PCs from Dell, HP, Panasonic and Lenovo still offer Windows 7 Pro as the default OS option. Windows 8.x consumer PC sales for Dell were so abysmal that Dell was forced to re-offer Windows 7 on most of their consumer models.
Windows 8.x has still not achieved the penetration at this same time period as Vista did at its equivalent release point, Vista being one of the worst operating systems (until Windows 8.x) ever released by Microsoft
Windows 8.x has been a significant factor in the plummeting of PC sales since its release, and because of the monumental disaster of Windows 8.x for all PC vendors, they are currently desperately searching for alternatives to Microsoft products (such as dual-boot Android/Windows 8.x devices), having lost faith in both Microsoft’s management and Microsoft’s products.
Windows 8 sucked the life out of my computer.
"Chaitanya Sareen, principal program manager at Microsoft, told U.K. computer publication PC Pro that data indicated a decrease in the use of the Start button. Citing "telemetry" obtained by the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program, Sareen said the company found more users relying on the Windows taskbar for pinning and accessing their favorite software instead of going through the Start menu." Source: Why Microsoft murdered the Start button in Windows 8.
I realize that I can still "Pin" all my favorite programs to the Metro GUI and then click the little down arrow on the bottom left to access all my other programs through the "Start" menu - or even easier I can just type Notepad and hit enter...
There is no difference in Business vs Home use when it comes to the new Metro GUI. It's a "I can't handle change" problem... Believe me, I rolled out Win 7 to a large segment of our 40k+ employee company and the wailing was over-the-top at first, but once they touched it everyone wanted it. Now all the other business segments are using political connections to be next in line. Yes, the move to Win 8 will be just like the move to Win 7, just like the move from Win 2k to Win XP was.
Classic Shell is free and will do the same for Windows 8, except for the Linux and Mac looks.
Or you can do as suggested and setup 8 to look and act very similar to 7. Microsoft changed the Start Button to the Start Screen, because their testing found that fewer and fewer people were using the Start Button. Most of them used the Taskbar instead.
I sold UNIX based products since the early 80s but even I have come to accept microsoft as the dominating force in PCs and moving into all things portable.
Works for me.
I have no real theory to argue for beyond "people make the easiest/simplest choice whenever possible" but confess to not liking Win 8 or being forced to make a change, even if/especially if it's for my own good.
Whether Microsoft discontinues support or their old machine dies, sooner or later the average consumer will see no other choice than to go to their favorite retailer and buy a functioning machine with a warranty, preloaded with the latest and greatest OS.
Once the old Win 7 machines were gone, sales for Win 8 goes up a bit more. The only other somewhat easy choice for a quick switch is buy or build a Win 7 machine.
That was my solution. I tried but didn't like Win 8 and haven't tried Win 8.1. My own personal reasons for my Win h8 might now be moot with the new and improved 8.1, but I don't know.
I only went as far as Win 7 from XP and will wait here for the next one.
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