What's wrong with the Xbox? The Xbox One had some early issues, but overall it was a solid console, and the Xbox S/X are highly regarded.
In a twisted sort of way, the only thing worse then selling a 12h gen Intel CPU in 2023 is selling an ARM chip that is slower, has an OS that is less featured and cannot run all winx86 programs.
Candidly, when I first read your comment, I thought you were outright kidding because the last line was spinning so hard. So, a few things…
a. I‘m guessing you missed the
Seattle Times article hyperlinked in the earlier post. The layoffs and department shrinkages speak for themselves (again, burning money vs. money to burn). BUS 101 aside, if a division nay product line is profitable, maintaining and supporting growth is the logical step; otherwise, well, you get the picture. The fact that MS doesn’t release raw sales numbers (shipped vs. sold) is pretty telling, especially during COVID.
Seriously, the pandemic (esp. by 2021!) was a true sellers market for all manufacturers but they missed the boat there, too.
b. Are you really going to compare Intel to Silicon on
performance and
battery life? 👀
c. So, issues running Windows, OS and apps, on an is a bygone argument that holds no basis in fact with M-series. A causal search will find you
example after
example of Windows (and/or apps) on ARM.
Anecdotally, I run Crossover for my app and some gaming needs on M1 and GForce Now (cloud) for my AAA title gaming needs.
d. Xbox, both current and last generation, remains the
single lowest-selling console/brand on the market, and it’s spurning
layoffs. —That’s a cold reality but a necessary one given their history with hardware.
The Xbox One (last gen) sold less than half of PlayStation 4, a statistic so crushing and embarrassing to Microsoft it took seven years to finally admit.
Xbox 360 was a high point to be sure but left scarred by continual hardware and component failures (e.g., RRoD, E71, multiple cardboard coffins, overheating, etc.).
One would hope that this year we see 14th gen/Meteor Lake, which might have some really good gains
They’re still trying to offload all the 12th Gen stock in their own warehouse(s) not least of which what’s collecting dust on pallets in their resellers and distributors warehouses. Plus, If they launch a new SKU while there’s still a sizable amount of product in the channel, it creates even bigger problems down the line not just for MS but also their distribution partners and resellers.
Plus, given how long-in-the-tooth the technology is in their current generation of Surface with an already admitted failed launch over the last quarter, there’s little to the imagination here about discussions being held about how and when to liquidate stock-on-hand.
Conjectural to all this, an admitted failed launch was pretty telling, leading me to believe they’re not sure about the sales forecast given the last generation shortfalls.
I think they will kill off projects like Surface to focus on AI which is their newfound money machine. More realistically in the short-term the Surface lineup may be slimmed down if it continues to underperform.
That was pretty close to my assessment, as well. They’re going to steer toward their strengths (e.g., software, cloud, etc.), it makes sense from a profitability standpoint but frankly I don‘t see them keeping Surface beyond one more generation, at most.