Microsoft profits

profits on Windows as high as 86%

[Robert Charlton]

I'm wondering whether anyone else has posted this. A bunch of stories out there reporting Microsoft profits, with particularly high profit margins on Windows desktop and Office products, and losses in other areas.

Here's a story from MSNBC [msnbc.com]:

Nov. 18 — Four of Microsoft’s seven business divisions lost money in the most recent quarter, according to financial statements the company filed last week. In the routine filing with the Securities Exchange Commission, the company also revealed Windows desktop profit margins were as high as nearly 86 percent.

[ScottM]

It doesn't surprise me at all. With the new XP requiring registration...piracy has gone downhill.

As soon as I loaded XP, I thought to myself, "Self, thou must buy MS stock. For thou cannot take a copy of it home with thou....and thus, the pirates of software are doomed. Thy MS stock will go up with this protection."

[Bradley]

I could believe it. I sell computer for a major computer manufacturer. I make good commission selling Windows XP Pro and Office XP Pro.

If the salesperson, the low man on the totem pole, makes good money then the company he works for must make good money. If the company makes good money selling the product, the manufacture makes good money as well. Microsoft does well selling that product. :)

[skibum]

Anyone want to play?

M-O-N-O-P-O-L-Y

[Visit Thailand]

...piracy has gone downhill

Been to Thailand recently?! Shops over here had XP available before it was out in the States!

Should add in not just Thailand but most of Asia!

[skibum]

Of course if other MSFT business units are losing money that could be a good sign for open source.

[veneerz]

currently have perfectly working pirated XP copy.

Thou shall sell MS stock immediately.

[lawman]

veneerz:

Since you seem to have provided more than enough info in your profile for M$ to track you down, I assume you are kidding. ;)

lawman

[OldFatherTime]

If M$ can't make money out of selling Windows, we might as well all give up The Web / Computing / SEO etc...

[veneerz]

lawman:
as you can see I left this sentence without a noun or pronoun. Who has pirated XP copy? Me? Many people? All eastern Europeans?
I don't allow myself to be too careless on the internet ;)

[skibum]

I don't think the edu versions have that registration "feature" built in to them.

[skibum]

Microsoft targets defectors with discounts [news.com.com]

4 units lost money, customers are defecting, it seems they pocketed a nice chunk of the cash that typically goes to some in the distribution chain. Could their market dominance be eroding?

[turk182]

From the very beginning of the XP family there's been pirated copies of Windows XP. I think I was told of existing XP pirate copies even before XP was comercially released.

I suppose it was not too difficult to create the first XP cracked copies, knowing the fact (at least this is what some people said to me) that the XP copies sent to big companies don't have the activation code (to save time installing the software).