Microsoft posts $500 Million loss

[roadbloc]

The thing is Enterprises or business do not like new software or new OS do to it cost them money . So Microsoft is in it for hard fight.

And cost money to get new software ,new OS and train people and they new windows XP with SP 3 it all just works . Well they do not know that about windows 7 or windows 8 to all the reviews come out.

One of the things about windows vista it did not support old software.And the public and them hated MS for that.

But what can Enterprise and Business users do? Microsoft pretty much monopolizes that market, with IBM doing the beefier backend stuff for the biggest Businesses.

They'll have no choice to upgrade. No other company can provide them with what they need.

 

[smoledman]

But what can Enterprise and Business users do? Microsoft pretty much monopolizes that market, with IBM doing the beefier backend stuff for the biggest Businesses.

They'll have no choice to upgrade. No other company can provide them with what they need.

iPad server room:

 

[nec207]

But what can Enterprise and Business users do? Microsoft pretty much monopolizes that market, with IBM doing the beefier backend stuff for the biggest Businesses.

They'll have no choice to upgrade. No other company can provide them with what they need.

There do nothing . Just use want they have and in 5 years or more be force to get windows 7 or windows 8 or may be windows 9 when it is out.

May be windows 9 will give people boot option boot into windows 8 metro or boot into windows 7.

Or MS will clean up the mentro.

 

[G51989]

iPad server room:

Image

Now that's cost effevtive

 

[Queso]

But what can Enterprise and Business users do? Microsoft pretty much monopolizes that market, with IBM doing the beefier backend stuff for the biggest Businesses.

They'll have no choice to upgrade. No other company can provide them with what they need.

In the entertainment sector we're using more and more Linux as time goes by. The only Windows servers left are for e-mail in one major company I look after. Everything else is based on Fedora distros.

 

[roadbloc]

iPad server room:

The average company will not have the money for this. I also doubt them iPads, if they are indeed running as a server, are running iOS.

 

[darkplanets]

This is a real blade servers:

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/bladecenter/hardware/servers/index.html
http://www.dell.com/us/enterprise/p/poweredge-blade-servers

I do love the POWER7+ processors. Neat stuff. It's a shame IBM didn't get their act together for the PPC bit.

 

[MorphingDragon]

Yes, mobile gaming is becomming bigger.

But it won't be replacing console gaming any time soon, or PC gaming.

I highly doubt most gamers will trade in theit consoles and towers for a phone, or a tablet.

And developers can charge 20-60 dollars for a pc or console game, mobile delevopers can not.

Microsoft is in a great console position, xbox live numbers are great, I just picked up a 360, gotta say. I love it.

As far as mobile gaming goes. The windows 8 phones have a chance to become popular if microsoft pushs very hard.

The surface pro could also become a popular mobile gaming platform, esp with all that power ( compared to most android and ipads ) under the hood. I could see then remaking surface pro versions of orginal xbox games. How sweet would that be?

That's not what I said.

Nice tangent though.

 

[maflynn]

Enterprises will be lining up to buy Mac Pros!

No they won't, not when better hardware can be purchased for the same money apple is charging for the Mac Pro

 

[G51989]

No they won't, not when better hardware can be purchased for the same money apple is charging for the Mac Pro

I think he was being sarcastic.

I think Apple should probably just drop the ball, and kill off the Pro. They are turning into a 100% consumer company. Which is fine, Because Windows/Nix dominates the Enterprise category anyways. Not sure what OSX could bring to the table in that area.

I think a good number of " Mac Pro " users already jumped ship to Windows or Nix.

Why?

Mac Pro:

No road map
no major updates for 3 years
huge cost for old hardware
no modern GPUs
short support life
very little in the way of new IO's.

Windows/Nix Workstations

Much more powerful/new hardware for the same money
Windows/Most Nix will be supported much longer than a version of OSX
Microsoft Road maps, buyers will know exactly where their Hardware and OS will stand in a couple years time
These workstations aren't available in " maybe 2013 ", they're available today.

Which is a shame, there was a time when Apple was all about the " Power User " ( Im looking at G4 and G5 towers, updated all the time, and they weren't insanely overpriced either ), now its just turned into iCrap

 

[thekev]

In the entertainment sector we're using more and more Linux as time goes by. The only Windows servers left are for e-mail in one major company I look after. Everything else is based on Fedora distros.

I like Fedora. A lot of desktop applications are certified on it too. If I could get everything I require to work properly on Fedora, Debian, or Ubuntu (yes I'm aware the other two are aimed at a different group of users), I'd never boot OSX again. I'd also grow a beard.

No they won't, not when better hardware can be purchased for the same money apple is charging for the Mac Pro

Bleh..the towers were my only Apple purchases that didn't give me problems. I forgot to expand on this. I'm a little sad with the direction they've gone on these machines. Part of their lack of volume may be "very" uncompetitive single package configurations. Last time I checked, you could configure one of the cheaper 12 core sandy bridge e configurations from Dell for $2700-3000, and a single package 6 core sandy bridge e machine down to around $1800. I wasn't matching specs perfectly, but if the goal was to lock in an appealing cpu and update the rest later as funds allow, it was fully possible. Sandy Bridge E doesn't look like as big of a leap as things got at the mobile end. Some of the jumps at the dual core level are really quite significant, but the readily apparent advantages present in the mac pro have eroded over the past several years.

 

[smoledman]

Actually companies continue to buy Mac Pros for video production.

 

[vvswarup]

Only a paper loss?!?? let say your holdings or 401K drops 20% in value, do you say, I don't care it's only a paper loss???

A write off of an investment indicates a depreciation/impairment of the asset, it means that the asset that was purchased has lost value, therefore (at posteriori) money has been lost.

It happens. Not every investment is going to do well but that doesn't mean you shouldn't invest. An investor can't be afraid of making mistakes. Microsoft made a bet on an acquisition and lost money.

I am not a Microsoft shareholder but I'm not worried at all. The only possible source of money is the fact that Microsoft paid that much money in the first place. If Microsoft writes off a whole bunch of acquisitions, then I would say it's time to be concerned about Microsoft's financial discipline. But so far, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that the investment just didn't pan out.

 

[G51989]

Actually companies continue to buy Mac Pros for video production.

Ah yes, video production on 3 year hardware

Most production houses are starting to make the jump to Nix/Windows stations.

They simply can't deal with the lack of updates, or roadmaps to the Mac Pro.

 

[maflynn]

I think he was being sarcastic.

Its tough to tell on forums when there's no smilies

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Actually companies continue to buy Mac Pros for video production.

Good for them, but I suspect they are in the minority given the premium that apple charges for outdated technology.


Now is this an assumption, or do you know specifically of companies buying MacPros?

 

[gsugolfer]

Only a paper loss?!?? let say your holdings or 401K drops 20% in value, do you say, I don't care it's only a paper loss???

A write off of an investment indicates a depreciation/impairment of the asset, it means that the asset that was purchased has lost value, therefore (at posteriori) money has been lost.

"Only a paper loss" means that their OPERATIONS did not post this large loss.

 

[G51989]

Its tough to tell on forums when there's no smilies

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Good for them, but I suspect they are in the minority given the premium that apple charges for outdated technology.


Now is this an assumption, or do you know specifically of companies buying MacPros?

Its less than a minority. The hardware ( The GPU that is ) simply isn't up to the task of modern video editing, at least quickly

Apple isn't interested in the Pro Market, because they realize they can't sell " Pros " garbage.

I think the Apple " Pro " market, died with the G5. At that point, the Mac Pro went a long time between updates, if you even count the most recent as an " update " ( I don't ). Its not updated very often, its hardware is a joke, yes. A ****ing joke. Dell will build me something WAY faster for the same money. Hate ti say this, Windows 7 blows the hell out of that pile of **** Lion ( worst OSX so far, I really hope ML fixes this. It might give me a reason to actually use my 2011 iMac ).

I think Apple will drop the Mac totally in a few years, and stick to the toys.

 

[tootall]

"Only a paper loss" means that their OPERATIONS did not post this large loss.

Actually a paper loss means that the loss is not materialized/realized, i.e., there has been no actual sale. That happens when an investment market to market loses value or when there is an impairment of fixed assets for example. Many investors (erroneously) dismiss such losses because there is no immediate impact on cash-flows, however it does mean a real loss in value.

For example if you bought your house for 500K$ and now it is only worth 300K$, as long as you don't sell it can be considered a "paper loss", however I believe you should not be too happy with your investment because if you do sell (or refinance your house), the loss do affect cash flows.

 

[smoledman]

Actually a paper loss means that the loss is not materialized/realized, i.e., there has been no actual sale. That happens when an investment market to market loses value or when there is an impairment of fixed assets for example. Many investors (erroneously) dismiss such losses because there is no immediate impact on cash-flows, however it does mean a real loss in value.

For example if you bought your house for 500K$ and now it is only worth 300K$, as long as you don't sell it can be considered a "paper loss", however I believe you should not be too happy with your investment because if you do sell (or refinance your house), the loss do affect cash flows.

Except Microsoft paid cash for aQuantive in 2007, this isn't valid to compare it to a mortgage. Write-downs != being underwater.