Microsoft reports $6.38 bn in profits, despite slow sales of Office

Microsoft has just announced its Q2 earnings for the 2013 financial year and though the company managed to rake in $21.5 billion, $6.38 billion of which is pure profit, the numbers seem to be less than previously expected. The dip in profits is being attributed to the impending launch of the next MS Office Suite, Office 2013.

While overall profit numbers look good, with each Redmond share closing at $0.76, one cent higher than the $0.75 analysts had predicted, the somewhat impressive sales numbers of Windows 8 were definitely offset by the slowing sales of the company’s current-generation productivity suite. While Microsoft Office 2013 has already been made available to the enterprise subscriber base, the consumer build of Office 2013 is slated for a January 2013 release, so it’s quite expected that the soon-to-be-outdated version of Office would not rack up impressive sales figures.

However, Office wasn’t the only department with disappointing numbers due to an impending launch. It is being reported that the Entertainment and Devices division also saw a dip in earnings, raking in $3.77 billion during a strong holiday season, but 7 percent lower than the figures from the same time last year. This is being attributed to many people holding off on purchasing an Xbox 360, given the rumours that Microsoft may be announcing the next-gen version of the console at E3 this year.

A dip in earnings prior to launch is an expected feature of fiscal quarters, and even though Microsoft may not have raked in the kind of money that was being projected, it still did manage to pocket a whopping $6.38 billion thanks to Windows 8 and its Server and Enterprise business.



Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Software/Microsoft-reports-638-bn-in-profits-despite_13201.html

Microsoft announces 40 million Windows 8 licences sold since launch

Microsoft claims that it has sold a whopping 40 million Windows 8 licences since its launch on October 26, 2012. Tami Reller, the Windows Chief Marketing and Financial Officer, revealed this information during a speech at Credit Suisse 2012 Annual Technology Conference. Reller said, “The journey is just beginning, but I am pleased to announce today that we have sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses so far.”

Recently, Microsoft revealed that it had sold four million upgrade copies of Windows 8 in the first few days of the new OS going live.

This is quite a milestone for the company and it is really pushing the new OS to the point that all newly launched laptops and ultrabooks are powered by Windows 8 even though Windows 7 is still a very stable and well-supported OS. Microsoft sold 60 million Windows 7 licenses from its launch (October 2009) till December 2009.

The details of “licenses sold” seems to be in the grey area as it does not clarify whether these licenses are sold to consumers, organizations, distributers or manufacturers who are offering Windows 8 straight out of the box.

Notably, no details about the sales figures of Microsoft’s Surface RT tablet were revealed. Microsoft’s Surface Pro, the tablets running Windows 8 Pro will be available from January 2013.

It’s nice to see that Windows 8 has an app store but at launch there were only a few thousand apps and they didn't include big names such as Facebook and Twitter. Also the learning curve for the new OS is a bit high which may turn off the traditional Windows user. Nonetheless, it is safe to say that Microsoft has done a pretty good job with its new desktop/tablet hybrid OS.



Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Software/Microsoft-announces-40-million-Windows-8-licences_11533.html

Windows Store goes past 20,000 apps

The Windows Store in Windows 8 has gone past 20,000 apps after almost a month since its launch. The Windows 8 store added 7,000 apps in the last two weeks. Though it's not known when it hit the landmark, but Win App Update, which keeps tracks of the totals, claims the Windows Store hit the milestone on Tuesday this week.

According to Win App Update, about 17,958 of the apps (87 percent) are free. It's notable not all apps are available in all regions and languages. Almost 13,000 of those are available in the U.S., 14,000 in Canada and 11,000 in the U.K.

Earlier this month, the Windows 8 store had about 12,895 apps. This means the store went on to add about 7,715 apps in the last 17 days, averaging more than 453 apps per day. The milestone means the Windows store's growth has once again accelerated, as it initially averaged 500 apps additions daily and then dipped to 300 apps per day recently.

At this rate, the Windows 8 store is estimated to go past 30,000 mark by end of this year or may close in on 40,000 apps. The coming holiday season may see developers adding more apps to Windows 8. Developers would be looking to cash in on 'massive' sales of the Windows 8-ready devices around the world.

The Windows 8 store is likely to see 'new-style' apps, which are optimised for the Metro UI. Check out The 10 best new-style Windows 8 apps.

Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Apps/Windows-Store-goes-past-20000-apps_11481.html

Minecraft creator slams Windows 8

Microsoft's Windows 8 has prompted the ire of certain game makers, and Minecraft creator Markus Persson is the latest to voice his concern. He posted two Twitter messages on Thursday that panned Redmond's upcoming OS, as the BBC originally noted.

"Got an email from Microsoft, wanting to help 'certify' minecraft for win 8," the first message said. "I told them to stop trying to ruin the pc as an open platform."


Four minutes later, he wrote that he would "rather have minecraft not run on win 8 at all than to play along. Maybe we can convince a few people not to switch to win 8 that way."

The PC building-block game became a viral sensation upon its launch, and surpassed 3 million Xbox 360 sales in less than three months. But it looks like Persson won't have the same success with Windows 8.

The certification requirement Persson referenced is a way for Microsoft to prove it has reviewed a program to confirm its code is "completely finished" and reliable to run on a Windows 8-powered PC – which excludes games rated PEGI 18 for ages 18 and up.

Valve co-founder Gabe Newell and Blizzard's executive vice president of game design, Rob Pardo, took shots at Windows 8 this summer.

"I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space," Newell said during a Seattle video game conference in July. "I think we'll lose some of the top-tier PC/OEMs, who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people. If that's true, then it will be good to have alternatives to hedge against that eventuality."

Meanwhile, Pardo also took to Twitter to mirror Newell's statements, adding that the OS is "not awesome for Blizzard either."


Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Software/Minecraft-creator-slams-Windows-8_10922.html