Article: Game Over - Ballmer Loses - Microsoft is finished?

While I can't say for certain either way since I'm not in the financial know of the company I sure hope something like this doesn't happen. I've really enjoyed having Microsoft involved in the gaming scene and for the most part I've really liked some of the things they brought to it.Archangel3371

MS isn't going anywhere. Even with all the iPads, and Androids PCs are still a big seller. As much as I don't like Windows 8 it's selling good, and of course Windows 7 is still selling. Surface looks, and works good. Too bad they decided to overprice it like an iPad instead of cutting into Apple's market share, by undercutting the iPad by $100 or so.

Ballmer has to go. Simple as that. But I don't think it's game over for Microsoft, far from it.

And this guy loses all credibility suggesting that Barnes and Noble would buy Microsoft's Xbox entertainment division.

When I see words like "horrific" and "the ruin of Microsoft" I know I'm reading a rant rather than an analysis.

Not going to happen. Honestly I'd rather see Sega in the console hardware business instead of Microsoft, but competition is a good thing in this industry.

Their entertainment division is turning a (small) profit of 365 millions for 2012 (and 1.3 billion in 2011). While that's not exactly huge, at least it's positive. It's very doubtful that they would sell it, as they're using it for integration purposes (Microsoft on your computer, on your phone, in your living room, in your bathroom, etc.)

The online service division lost 8 billion last year (and lost 2 billion in both 2011 and 2010). That definitely is a source of concern. That division has very little to do with Xbox Live, btw. Its main products and services areBing, MSN, adCenter, and Atlas online tools for advertisers. Basically, Microsoft can't compete with Google, and probably will never be able to.

Microsoft is the fourth most profitable corporation in America so...

No.

According to Adam Hartum (Business consultant, author and columnist at Forbes Magazine) who wrote for Innovation Excellence the following article: Link he explains the reasons why Microsoft's days are numbered and nothing the company can do, not even changing its CEO will salvage the company. Some selected quotes: "...it is clear the market movement away from Microsoft products, toward Apple and Android products, has not changed. On Christmas eve, as people turned on their new devices and launched their first tweet, Surface came in dead last a mere 2% compared to the number of people tweeting from iPads (Kindle was second, Android third.)""Microsofts monopoly over personal computing has evaporated. From 95% market domination in 2005 share has fallen to just 20% in 2012 (IDC, Goldman Sachs. Comparing devices, in 2005 there were 55 Windows devices sold for every Apple device; today explosive Apple sales has lowered that multiple to a mere 2!""Microsoft makes more than 75% of its profits from Windows and Office. Less than 25% comes from its vaunted servers and tools. And Microsoft makes nothing from its xBox/Kinect entertainment division, while losing vast sums on-line (negative $350M-$750M/quarter). No matter how much anyone likes the non-Windows Microsoft products, without the historical Windows/Office sales and profits Microsoft is not sustainable.""The entertainment division will be spun off, sold to someone like Sony or even Barnes and Noble, or dramatically reduced in size. Unable to make a profit it will increasingly be seen as a distraction to the battle for saving Windows and Microsoft leadership has long shown they have no idea how to profitably grow this business unit." Could this be true and Microsoft become a memory of the past in the next 5 years? Could the gaming division of Microsoft survive if it splintered off the parent company?SciFiCat

Currently work or have personally worked for several of the companies/divisions mentioned in this article. I'd take much of this with a grain of salt.

-Byshop

maybe they can push microsoft office for the next xbox.....

Apple stock has been dropping like a rock over the past week or so due to poorer than expected sales of iOS devices, even though they still dominate the market. Microsoft also provides much better service for business computing needs than does Apple. No one with any degree of credibility would proclaim the end of time for Microsoft. They may be losing their grip on market dominance but that's far from being near the end of their existence.

According to Adam Hartum (Business consultant, author and columnist at Forbes Magazine) who wrote for Innovation Excellence the following article: Link he explains the reasons why Microsoft's days are numbered and nothing the company can do, not even changing its CEO will salvage the company. Some selected quotes: "...it is clear the market movement away from Microsoft products, toward Apple and Android products, has not changed. On Christmas eve, as people turned on their new devices and launched their first tweet, Surface came in dead last a mere 2% compared to the number of people tweeting from iPads (Kindle was second, Android third.)""Microsofts monopoly over personal computing has evaporated. From 95% market domination in 2005 share has fallen to just 20% in 2012 (IDC, Goldman Sachs. Comparing devices, in 2005 there were 55 Windows devices sold for every Apple device; today explosive Apple sales has lowered that multiple to a mere 2!""Microsoft makes more than 75% of its profits from Windows and Office. Less than 25% comes from its vaunted servers and tools. And Microsoft makes nothing from its xBox/Kinect entertainment division, while losing vast sums on-line (negative $350M-$750M/quarter). No matter how much anyone likes the non-Windows Microsoft products, without the historical Windows/Office sales and profits Microsoft is not sustainable.""The entertainment division will be spun off, sold to someone like Sony or even Barnes and Noble, or dramatically reduced in size. Unable to make a profit it will increasingly be seen as a distraction to the battle for saving Windows and Microsoft leadership has long shown they have no idea how to profitably grow this business unit." Could this be true and Microsoft become a memory of the past in the next 5 years? Could the gaming division of Microsoft survive if it splintered off the parent company?SciFiCat

And Microsoft makes nothing from its xBox/Kinect entertainment division, SciFiCat

LOL! What a terrible article. Then again it's forbes.

Xbox has been profitable since 2009. Kinect has been profitable since day 1. The reason why their entertainment division doesnt make any money is beacuse they merged their Xbox division to the other entertainment division (Zune and other disasters) to offset the losses from those misendevours. Maybe if this f*cking guy had done his research on what exactly that entertainment division does, he wouldn't have made the assinine suggestion that Xbox brand would one day be sold to Sony.

MS has its problems at the moment, but the Xbox brand is their one true success. Anyone saying otherwise is out of their mind.

How can they be under in the online department if they earn some $50.000.000 a year in xbox live subscriptions alone?Black_Knight_00

You mean $50 million? I thought the figure was around $500 million every year, but that included everything on XBL.

[QUOTE="SciFiCat"]And Microsoft makes nothing from its xBox/Kinect entertainment division, S0lidSnake

LOL! What a terrible article. Then again it's forbes.

Xbox has been profitable since 2009. Kinect has been profitable since day 1. The reason why their entertainment division doesnt make any money is beacuse they merged their Xbox division to the other entertainment division (Zune and other disasters) to offset the losses from those misendevours. Maybe if this f*cking guy had done his research on what exactly that entertainment division does, he wouldn't have made the assinine suggestion that Xbox brand would one day be sold to Sony.

MS has its problems at the moment, but the Xbox brand is their one true success. Anyone saying otherwise is out of their mind.

While I agree that the system has been a success, most of that success has come from decisions made PRIOR to Kinect, which is why each year since its introduction, Microsoft has sold fewer systems than the year prior, with last year being 30% less than the year before.

As for Kinect being profitable, well, it's obvious the tech sucks and doesn't work half the time, so I'd be surprised if the R&D costs were all that high. I mean, at the end of the day all they did was make an Eyetoy, which a couple of grad students could have reverse engineered. They spent a bunch of money marketing it to the mouth breathers I'm sure, and it worked although at the end of the day, their sales still went down (even despite bullshlt protestations and wishful thinking from them saying they were "accelerating") when most systems at this point in their lives see increases.

[QUOTE="Black_Knight_00"]How can they be under in the online department if they earn some $50.000.000 a year in xbox live subscriptions alone?S0lidSnake

You mean $50 million? I thought the figure was around $500 million every year, but that included everything on XBL.

That "they make nothing out of XBL" statement sounds completely pulled out of a giant ass.