It’s not hard to gauge $2 billion a month in profit, though...
Complain as we might, Microsoft DOES do some things right - it’s hard to keep setting records in profit quarter-after-quarter for a few decades unless you’re doing something that people want to buy...
DISCLOSURE: I do some part-time (5-10 hours/week) consulting at the Redmond campus, in a technical field. The engineers there are top notch. I often disagree (and verbally so) with management and business direction, but then again they manage to make over $46,000 in profit per minute, so maybe they do know a thing or two about their business and market space.
I was commenting on the success of Vista. It’s hard to tell based on revenues.
MS revenue includes a huge number of things, include it’sBusiness Division, Servers and Tools Divinsions, Entertainment (including x-box) Divisions, Investments. The billions of profit also includes these areas.
They have a tight lock on OEMs and separating out OS sales track with PC sales, and have to be considered in light of things that drive this market. You also cannot tell what portion of OEM OS sales are actually used - or desired - by the buyer.
It’s entirely possible for MS to have record revenues, huge revenues, and Vista still be a poor product or a major competitive mistake.
I’m not saying it is necessarily; just that it is not necessarily reflected in the profits. It likely wouldn’t be for some time. If ever, as MS invests in more and more non-OS areas.
IMHO, it is entirely possible for MS to make even more profit at some date years in future and no longer have a dominant OS share.
thanks for your reply.
Sorry, posted before proofing. Should have been:
Separating out OS sales is difficult. MS has a tight lock on OEMs and OS sales track with PC sales, and have to be considered in light of things that drive this market.