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Toronto Will Host Microsoft's 2012 Conference

I think business historians looking back on the early 21st Century will refer to Microsoft as the Blockbuster, Kodak and Underwood Typewriter Company of its era. Technology and lack of innovation left the one time dominant player behind.

Microsoft took DOS, made Windows and a host of Office applications, and then sat back and did nothing. Meanwhile others invented Google, Open Office, etc. Microsoft is "so 90s".
 
Admiral Beez said:
I think business historians looking back on the early 21st Century will refer to Microsoft as the Blockbuster, Kodak and Underwood Typewriter Company of its era. Technology and lack of innovation left the one time dominant player behind.

Microsoft took DOS, made Windows and a host of Office applications, and then sat back and did nothing. Meanwhile others invented Google, Open Office, etc. Microsoft is "so 90s".
Click to expand...

I don't think that's the point. The point is Tourism Toronto (you know, that group that you believe would provide Toronto with no return on investment if municipal funds went towards it) was able to attract a massive conference to the city that will contribute roughly $52million to the local economy. These types of events are phenomenal wins for the city and will lead to even bigger events in years to come.
 
Admiral Beez said:
I think business historians looking back on the early 21st Century will refer to Microsoft as the Blockbuster, Kodak and Underwood Typewriter Company of its era. Technology and lack of innovation left the one time dominant player behind.

Microsoft took DOS, made Windows and a host of Office applications, and then sat back and did nothing. Meanwhile others invented Google, Open Office, etc. Microsoft is "so 90s".
Click to expand...

Microsoft has made some baffling decisions since Jobs left, but they're far too big and influential to be counted out. Windows Phone 7 is actually an excellent OS, and quite unique compared to the Android/iOS.

They recently signed a deal with Nokia to have Windows Phone replace Symbian as the official OS for all their phones. That's a huge coup for Microsoft...not to mention the fact they're starting to make a lot of money off Android too due to all the patents they hold.

It's way too early to write off MS.
 
syn said:
Microsoft has made some baffling decisions since Jobs left, but they're far too big and influential to be counted out. Windows Phone 7 is actually an excellent OS, and quite unique compared to the Android/iOS.

They recently signed a deal with Nokia to have Windows Phone replace Symbian as the official OS for all their phones. That's a huge coup for Microsoft...not to mention the fact they're starting to make a lot of money off Android too due to all the patents they hold.

It's way too early to write off MS.
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Yep. If anyone thinks Microsoft is just about Windows and Office, they have missed alot in the past 10 years. Microsoft owns Skype, they own a bit of Facebook and they do a significant amount of business dealings with them (they are now integrating Skype into Facebook). They are partnered with a lot of mobile phone manufacturers and developers as mentioned above. They also brought out the X-Box which shook things up in console gaming around 2001 and is still an active product. The XBox will soon offer a streaming TV service like Netflix. Windows itself is radically different from what it originally was and Windows 8 appears to be a complete revamp to the era of tablets and smartphones too.
 
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Jonny5 said:
Yep. If anyone thinks Microsoft is just about Windows and Office, they have missed alot in the past 10 years. Microsoft owns Skype, they own a bit of Facebook and they do a significant amount of business dealings with them (they are now integrating Skype into Facebook). They are partnered with a lot of mobile phone manufacturers and developers as mentioned above. They also brought out the X-Box which shook things up in console gaming around 2001 and is still an active product. The XBox will soon offer a streaming TV service like Netflix. Windows itself is radically different from what it originally was and Windows 8 appears to be a complete revamp to the era of tablets and smartphones too.
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The problem is that almost none of Microsoft's initiatives since Windows and Office actually make money.
 
Considering the development cost, Xbox has lost money. Skype also loses money and will take a long, long time to recoup that $9 billion purchase price, even if it does start making money.
 
unimaginative2 said:
Considering the development cost, Xbox has lost money. Skype also loses money and will take a long, long time to recoup that $9 billion purchase price, even if it does start making money.
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Xbox lost money at the start, but makes money now.

This is from 2008:

The 2008 Revenue and Operating Income for each division, in USD, is as follows:

Client (Windows Operating System)
Revenue: $16,865,000,000
Operating Income: $13,052,000,000

Server and Tools (Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Studio)
Revenue: $13,170,000,000
Operating Income: $4,593,000,000

Online Services (Live Search, MSN, Hotmail)
Revenue: $3,214,000,000
Operating income: $-1,233,000,000

Business Division (Office, Project, Visio, Exchange Server, Dynamics)
Revenue: $18,932,000,000
Operating income: $12,358,000,000

Entertainment and Devices (XBox, Zune, Windows Mobile)
Revenue: $8,140,000,000
Operating income: $426,000,000


There's only one division running at a loss.
 
Thanks for posting that information. From what I've heard, while it makes an operating income, Xbox is still far from paying back its multibillion dollar development cost. These figures are only looking at operating income--they don't take into account the enormous development cost of some of these products. As your figures demonstrate, the enormous profits are still in the core Windows/Windows Server and Office product lines. The new developments in online services are loss-making and the entertainment devices, while profitable, are surely at least struggling to pay off their development cost.

All this isn't to say that Microsoft isn't enormously strong. Those profits certainly show that it is. It just shows that it's a bit of a utility these days turning out a product that is dominant because it is a standard. It could go on for many years paying a fat dividend, but then again since this is the technology industry, it could get side-swiped just like Apple did by Windows 95. Then again, it could pull off an Apple-like resurgence...
 
Admiral Beez said:
I think business historians looking back on the early 21st Century will refer to Microsoft as the Blockbuster, Kodak and Underwood Typewriter Company of its era. Technology and lack of innovation left the one time dominant player behind.

Microsoft took DOS, made Windows and a host of Office applications, and then sat back and did nothing. Meanwhile others invented Google, Open Office, etc. Microsoft is "so 90s".
Click to expand...

What does that have to do with the article?:confused: This will be great for tourism, With the drop in tourism over the last few years it's nice to see things picking up! July will be a good month for hotels in 2012
 
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with all the patents they hold... I seem more like a IBM type company of our era then anything else. And this a huge coup for the city... win 8 will likely be released next year and this conference will likely display that major piece of software quite prominently.
 
Yeah I would not write off Microsoft. They still have the time and resources to set themselves up nicely for the future.
 
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