> What's your takeaway here? For many years the Microsoft's core product were operating systems: MS/DOS and Windows. It is remarkable that revenue from operation systems has dropped to a mere 10%
> It'd be illegal for a publicly-traded company to meddle with financial > results and they'd risk lawsuits from investors ... Computer software is a relatively new industry and accounting rules and conventions have not kept up with reality. What is illegal and what is not is a murky matter. People who buy isolated Microsoft software products are a minority. Most people buy personal computers with software pre-installed. How much does Microsoft earn with each PC sale? We don't know. Of the portion that goes to Microsoft, how much is for the OS and how much is for applications? Possibly the PC price tag includes a one-time fee for Bing search engine features which are accessible only from Windows computers. > I think you're confusing revenue with market share. Revenue and market share are different. But they are related. If you have a monopoly you can charge dear for your product and enjoy high profits. You can also dictate various terms to your advantage. You can ignore demands for customization and tell customers who need it to find and hire some party which will offer such service. The server market and game market are competitive. They are not as lucrative as the OS market was when it was dominated by Microsoft. Thank you for the reply. I hope the above helps clarify some points. _______________________________________________ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
