3 ms·
> how to set a vision long enough that a $900 million writedown doesn’t break you Goodness. That probably means there was much more than 9 figures of losses in
by m52go 11y ago
> how to set a vision long enough that a $900 million writedown doesn’t break you
Goodness. That probably means there was much more than 9 figures of losses in total. The trust MSFT places in Panay and his team must be gargantuan.
I really wonder what MSFT's upper-limit of tolerable losses was for the Surface program.
- qzcx 11y agoIf I remember correctly, the XBox was operating at a loss at the beginning. I think it was more than expected that it would take a few years to break into the market.
- ucaetano 11y agoThere's a major difference between operating at a loss while selling 1.3 million units in 3 months (more than the PS2, PS3, Wii) as the XBOX did and having a product that absolutely nobody is buying as the Surface.
- randomhunt 11y agoI travel on a train for a medium length journey 2-4 times a week. In the last 12 months I've noticed that the transition from never seeing a Surface (Pro) to seeing 5-10% of tablets being a Surface (Pro). The vast majority are iPads still but its interesting that Surface has made such inroads. Based on what I see the main reason is the combination of the keyboard and Outlook.
- Someone1234 11y agoI'd also tack on: It is about enterprise appeal. A lot of people forget that IT departments in medium to large companies need to be able to remotely manage equipment, Macs are "annoying" and iPads are damn near un-manage-able. So while a lot of middle managers outside of IT think that iPads are "cool" and push for them, they get a lot of push back from IT due to their impracticality and the amount of time/resources it would take to manage. A Surface Pro has none of these issues. It is a standard Windows 10 PC which can be managed via System Center/AD/GPO/etc, so they're non-effort machines for enterprise/IT. So that, I suspect, is why you're seeing so many so quickly. Internally non-IT management wants a "tablet" and the IT department is deflecting from iPads onto Surface Pros because it is in their best interests to do so.
- djloche 11y agoThere's a major difference between "a product that absolutely nobody is buying" and the revenue reported in the eight most recent quarters: $672MM (Q1-2016), $888MM (Q4-2015), $713MM (Q3-2015), $1100MM (Q2-2015), $908MM (Q1-2015), $409MM (Q4-2014), $500MM (Q3-2014), $893MM (Q2-2014). (to note, Q2 is their oct-nov-dec quarter) ~$6Billion in revenue means absolutely someone is buying Surface products.
- ucaetano 11y agoQ1-2016? Are you from the future? And for comparison, the original XBox sold $300M. In the first 3 weeks.
- djloche 11y agohttps://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/PressReleaseAndWebcast/FY16/Q1/default.aspx https://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Ear... In case you weren't aware, Microsoft released their 2016-Q1 earnings recently.
- ucaetano 11y agoGood point, I should have paid more attention to the dates, not just the numbers :)
- gamblor956 11y agoThe year (2016) refers to the calendar year in which Microsoft's fiscal year ends (Jun 2016). Many, but not all, companies use a standard fiscal year of Jul-Jun rather than a calendar year of Jan-Dec for financial reporting and tax purposes. Thus, Q1 2016 means the quarter ending Sep 30, 2015, for Microsoft's fiscal year ending Jun 30, 2016 (which began Jul 1, 2015).
- dump100 11y agoPerseverance is one of the key MS strength, they don't easily give up once they start, considering their history of getting things right by v3, it makes sense. There are exceptions, but still MS is a company mostly for long haul.
- Tloewald 11y agoThis is definitely a MS strength, although there have been some notable exceptions (e.g. Silverlight and Expression Studio).