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Investors want Microsoft’s new CEO to kill Xbox, Bing and Surface

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Investors want Microsoft’s new CEO to kill Xbox, Bing and Surface

#71

Post by rdl »

adamnemecek wrote: post #41
rdl wrote: post #29

I wonder if they could sell Xbox to Lenovo for $huge. I don't think consoles are going to do very well this time -- mobile gaming killed the market for 'people who will tolerate lower spec hardware because it's convenient', and IIRC the PS3/360 were better relative to $2k PCs when launched than the PS4/Xbone are today relative to $2k PCs. The PS3/360 have been pretty mediocre for years, so the PS4/Xbone are going to…

I don't play games at all but saying that gamers moved to mobile games is beyond silly.

Current gamers didn't, but their kids did, reducing the demand for new consoles.

I went the other way (back to PC gaming, had PS3/360; won't get PS4/Xbone until there's a platform exclusive I must have)

Re: Investors want Microsoft’s new CEO to kill Xbox, Bing and Surface

#72

Post by mark_l_watson »

I don't own a surface, but I think future version of the Surface might end up being a very good product, and thus profitable.

I imagine the next version of Surface being 1/3 lighter, 1/3 less expensive, and I am likely to buy one, even though I don't even own a Windows device right now.

Off topic: the new lighter iPads are awesome. A very light weight bluetooth keyboard cover that is designed by Apple and is extremely thin and light weight would potentially eat the Surface's lunch - for users who don't specifically need Windows applications.

Re: Investors want Microsoft’s new CEO to kill Xbox, Bing and Surface

#73

Post by Mikeb85 »

pjmlp wrote: post #44
Mikeb85 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well they already killed their XNA framework...

Regardless how much XNA was praised, it was a indie only thing. The majority of professional studios still use C++ based engines. Unity is the Microsoft's endorsed replacement for XNA, as announced in the Visual Studio 2013 release keynote.

> Regardless how much XNA was praised, it was a indie only thing. The majority of professional studios still use C++ based engines. Unity is the Microsoft's endorsed replacement for XNA, as announced in the Visual Studio 2013 release keynote.

Doesn't matter. Goodwill is important, Microsoft is big enough they can afford to maintain 1 library.

Re: Investors want Microsoft’s new CEO to kill Xbox, Bing and Surface

#74

Post by TrainedMonkey »

dredmorbius wrote: post #5
TrainedMonkey wrote: post #3

Investors would also want Google to kill G+. Product line does not have to make money to be significant part of the brand.

ORLY? References / sources?

It is hard to find anything relevant to Google+ now because of the amount of shit content, however here is one article from 2011: http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2011/06/30/why-googl...

Around that time there were a bunch of them with some people even trying to make a case for shorting GOOG.

Re: Investors want Microsoft’s new CEO to kill Xbox, Bing and Surface

#75

Post by nobodysfool »

pedalpete wrote: post #58

Killing Surface may be premature. As far as I can tell, Surface Pro 2 is currently out of stock basically everywhere. Windows RT, I'd be happy to call that one pretty much dead anyway. Unless they can figure out a way to get full windows apps running on ARM devices, I don't see the point. Intel chips are going to improve in performance and battery life to the point where they are nearly comparable with ARM (or at lea…

>Surface Pro 2 is currently out of stock basically everywhere

Not really.

http://www.nowinstock.net/computers/tablets/microsoft/surfac...

Re: Investors want Microsoft’s new CEO to kill Xbox, Bing and Surface

#76

Post by pjmlp »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #73
pjmlp wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless how much XNA was praised, it was a indie only thing. The majority of professional studios still use C++ based engines. Unity is the Microsoft's endorsed replacement for XNA, as announced in the Visual Studio 2013 release keynote.

> Regardless how much XNA was praised, it was a indie only thing. The majority of professional studios still use C++ based engines. Unity is the Microsoft's endorsed replacement for XNA, as announced in the Visual Studio 2013 release keynote. Doesn't matter. Goodwill is important, Microsoft is big enough they can afford to maintain 1 library.

If you ever worked in a big corporation, would know that doesn't work like that.

Re: Investors want Microsoft’s new CEO to kill Xbox, Bing and Surface

#77

Post by Aloha »

WalterBright wrote: post #28
Aloha wrote: post #17

Probably not. This is about the myopic quarter to quarter focus on profits by the market, the stock market in the last 30 years has been increasingly unable to to focus on the long game - if it does generate income or profit by the next quarter, its rubbish. This attitude has wormed its way all through the economy, its part of why its hard to get a company to promote from within - they expect their employees to come…

> This is about the myopic quarter to quarter focus on profits by the market, the stock market in the last 30 years has been increasingly unable to to focus on the long game - if it does generate income or profit by the next quarter, its rubbish. I've seen this sentiment about the market like, forever. Yes, I've been investing in the market for 30 years. But I seriously doubt that investors are so stupid. If they wer…

You sorta made my point for me. My argument is that the market wants quarter to quarter growth over stability. There are many industries that are stable, generate lots of revenue, are profitable, but do not generate high stock prices because of no growth, like:

Truck Stops Utilities Tire Companies Banks Insurance

My argument is before the mid 80's - the focus was on the dividend not on the stock price itself, IMO, buying and selling based on stock price, rather than earning disbursed to shareholders, is merely speculation, rather than investing.

Re: Investors want Microsoft’s new CEO to kill Xbox, Bing and Surface

#78

Post by WalterBright »

Aloha wrote: post #77
WalterBright wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is about the myopic quarter to quarter focus on profits by the market, the stock market in the last 30 years has been increasingly unable to to focus on the long game - if it does generate income or profit by the next quarter, its rubbish. I've seen this sentiment about the market like, forever. Yes, I've been investing in the market for 30 years. But I seriously doubt that investors are so stupid. If they wer…

You sorta made my point for me. My argument is that the market wants quarter to quarter growth over stability. There are many industries that are stable, generate lots of revenue, are profitable, but do not generate high stock prices because of no growth, like: Truck Stops Utilities Tire Companies Banks Insurance My argument is before the mid 80's - the focus was on the dividend not on the stock price itself, IMO, bu…

The focus on dividends vs stock appreciation is driven by the difference in tax treatment of the two. Tax policy has alternately favored one over the other, with the predictable resulting shift in investor focus.

Saying stock purchasing anticipating future growth in the stock price as "mere" speculation is very incorrect. A company can choose to issue a dividend or repurchase stock (thereby pushing up the price), these are economically equivalent. The choice is made based usually on tax treatment.

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