Microsoft Announces Fiscal Third Quarter Results : Windows Mobile grows but still tiny part of the business
April 29, 2005 [General] | By Edward J. R.
Reality check: Microsoft is the biggest software maker on this planet but still Windows Mobile constitutes tiny percent of the totall Microsoft's revenues. Here we present highlights about financial results of Microsoft in Third Quarter 2005:
- division "Mobile & Embedded Devices" achieved revenue of $80 million in Q3 FY05 (Fiscal Year 2005) what is +31% year on year growth but it is less than Q2 FY05 that was $91 million.
- Licenses from connected devices more than doubled from prior year
- announced Windows Mobile phone platfrom with Flextronics (albeit no devices based on this platform has been shipped commercially yet, so mentioning it in financial report for this quarter is not very important but it may influence future financial results)
- Developer Momentum:
- over 380,000 Windows Mobile pro developers
- over 18,000 Windows Mobile applications
- Windows Mobile (as opposed to Windows CE and Windows XP - the 2 embedded operating systems that Microsoft also offers) - drives revenue growth
Overall conclusions: the financial results year on year are good and clearly since Windows Mobile codename magneto has not been announced yet we cannot speak yet of long term predictions. Windows Mobile codename magneto (to be released during MEDC 2005, May 9-12, 2005) - the new and major upgrade to Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition - can bring increase in sales and revenues for Windows Mobile, however cooperation with hardware vendors is needed. While Microsoft can easily compete on software - by providing superior mobile OS and platform, including superior development tools, Microsoft can't compete directly on hardware but Nokia (de facto owner of Symbian) can and will do it by releasing phones like Nokia N91 that contain such features as 4GB hard disk, built-in Wi-Fi and UMTS/3G compatibility. Phones powered by Windows Mobile still lag behind competition, notably in the area of 3G still there are no Windows Mobile phones for 3G networks (i.e. for UMTS/WCDMA, there are some for CMDA-EVDO but they don't offer video telephony so they don't count). To ensure long term victory for Windows Mobile, Microsoft would have to do something to support its hardware partners to compete with Nokia also on hardware, but it may appear impossible after all...
Some slides from Microsoft follow.
Please pay special attention to this pie chart and observe how tiny part "Mobile and Embedded Devices" division (of which Windows Mobile is only a part) is:
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