“The personal computer business has been in the worst downturn since the industry’s inception, but Microsoft has shown a knack for finding ways to insulate itself,” Nick Wingfield reports for The New York Times. “Until now.”
“On Thursday, the company missed Wall Street forecasts, blaming the declining PC market for the shortfall. Microsoft also acknowledged the disappointing sales of one of its most prominent products, its Surface RT tablet computer, by taking a $900 million charge to reflect unsold inventory of the device,” Wingfield reports. “‘It finally caught up to them,’ said Colin W. Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners. ‘We’ve been in a PC recession for five quarters.'”
Wingfield reports, “Last week, the research firm Gartner reported that global PC shipments declined 10.9 percent in the second quarter of the year, the fifth consecutive quarter of declining PC shipments, the longest ever. Mobile devices have sapped much of the gusto out of the PC market. Many people are buying tablet computers, especially Apple’s iPad, instead of PCs to watch movies, surf the Web and write e-mails.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Tom R.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Microsoft earnings, sales badly miss expectations; $900 million inventory writedown on Surface tablet flop – July 18, 2013
Gartner: Apple to overtake Microsoft in total OS sales in 2015 – June 25, 2013
Apple Macintosh owns 45% of PC market profits – April 16, 2013
Steve Jobs’ revenge – April 12, 2013
Apple Macintosh on the rise as Windows PC market plummets – April 11, 2013
Gartner: PC Market posts 11.2 percent decline in Q113; Apple Mac sales up 7.4 percent in U.S. – April 10, 2013
IDC: PC shipments post the steepest decline ever in a single quarter, down 13.9% in Q113 – April 10, 2013
I would imagine the stock market will punish AAPL today because they’re in the same industry. I read the poor financial results from Google and Microsoft as good news for AAPL, but what do I know?
Wall Street is so clueless that they ALWAYS include AAPL in whatever happens to Microsoft, Dell, Google, etc. If Google can’t sell its crap phones then that must mean Apple can’t sell phones either. If Dell can’t sell desktop computers because of Microsoft’s crappy OS that means Apple can’t sell anything either. They never have recognized that it’s Apple that’s taking away those markets. Things will right themselves after Apple reports earnings on the 23rd. Look for Apple to beat iPhone sales estimates by about 30%.
From your mouth…
You’re absolutely right. The only problem is that if Apple does well, WS says, “They can’t keep this up!”
A true one sad trick pony end up a rocking horse
Correct headline: Consumer Clarity Catches up to Microsoft.
should have been:
Steve Jobs continues to haunt Microsoft.
MSFT is down a whopping 10% but GOOG (also had a worse than expected result) is only down a bit over 1%…how come Google is always Wall Streets pet??
how come Google is always Wall Streets pet??
Cute puppy syndrome? Even when a puppy takes a dump on you, it’s cute. GOOG love is anything but rational.
Google is a pet of the Intelligence agencies and is rewarded accordingly. They stroke Google on Wall Street.
Apple has not compromised itself – as far as we know. But turn off GPS of your iPhone and iPad (or try).
Sorry Sega is never coming back. They’re broke
I hate Microsuck. But you can hardly blame them when the dream cast was such an inferior console to the PS2, Xbox and GameCube
Sega’s broken, not broke and anyone can come back, including Apple, with the right leadership.
The Mac is such a toy when it comes to games.
A case could be made, Steve Jobs was so convinced the Mac was not a toy, he designed a miserable gaming experience right into every low-end Macintosh.
It was iPhone that opened Steve Jobs’s eyes. ALL of his customers were so starved for entertainment that, we taught Him to think differently about Gaming.
I still own a 360, it fills my need to Game, but I’ve never experienced what it feels like to play the latest PC game on the fastest PC computer, playing it the way the developer intended, with things like occlusion, ambient light, smoke and fog, and I don’t think I want to either.
If I did, it would ruin gaming for me altogether. Besides, I’m finally getting the hang of Bejeweled on iPad.
Actually in the early days due to its graphics superiority the Mac was very good for games, a long time ago now though.
Actually you should consider buying the new Mac Pro for a game machine.
Just a thought. Plus it wil look great on the table.
Surface RT? Waste
Start of Microsoft turning into an enterprise only company
MSFT can cozy up some more with DELL as the plummet together off the edge of the waterfall called THE FUTURE.
As THEY plummet…
Wait, didn’t I ban myself from writing today? Sheesh.
Can anyone explain to me why MSFT was up like 20% YTD before this announcement? Do the people who invest in stocks have no real idea of the realities of the marketplace? Oh, wait, AAPL is down, what, 35% since November of last year? I guess I’ve answered my own question. Silly people.
Some in the media just don’t get that Microsoft is the CAUSE of the “weak Windows PC market.” It’s not weak PC sales causing revenue loss for Microsoft.
Windows 8 was the final straw. Traditional PC customers don’t want to buy a new PC with Windows 8.
Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are playing Russian roulette with a derringer. Each looking at the gun laying before them, Bill says, you go first. Steve says, 😛
…I already have. It didn’t hurt me. You try it.
morning Seamus.
See ya’ around campus.
: —P
This is the emoticon I should have created for Ballmer and sidestep MDNs decision-making ability.
People aren’t buying these devices for a simple reason. No value has been added to them since 2003. Outside regular replacements for broken devices, this industry will not grow until these devices do something that customers value.
Look at the iPhone and iPad. There you have devices that are comfortable to use in places without a tabletop closer to where they are needed. That adds value therefore people buy them.