News Microsoft details major Surface RT write-down

I think he'll manage.

 

Markets don't like everything. Lower sales than market expected ? Price drops. More ? Price drops. Less profit ? Price drops. More ? Price drops.

Don't try to search for logic in share market. It has none.

 

True, who worries about $1.6 billion when you are worth an estimated $67 billion

 

To be honest, that is virtual $1.6 billion from virtual $67 billion. Because that is the "valuation" of the company and not what the company is really worth.

 

Let this be a lesson to all companies who arrogantly think people will want an item without first doing a lot more consultations. Hopefully Microsoft will learn and adapt their future policies to prevent this happening. There are still the Windows 8 and new Xbox blunders to fully account for. I hope for Microsoft's sake they appoint people with more sense to manage development of future products or they will be done for.

 

People don't know what they want. It's why they buy so much meaningless crap.

 

The problem is MS are incapable of selling stuff... they cocked it up with the Zune... and they're cocking it up with the surface... they need to grab people and scream "OUR THING IS ****ING AWESOME!!! YOU WANT IT!!! BUY ONE!!!"

Right now it's

Apple: You want our iThing because SHINY!!!!

Samsung: You want our Galaxy thing because IT'S NOT AN iTHING!!!

MS: erm exuse me... we have this um... thing over here... it does stuff the others don't... we'd be rather appreciative if you bought one....

Google: You want our Nexus thing because IT'S CHEAP!!!!

Nokia: You want our Lumia thing because SUPPORT THE UNDERDOG!!!

 

@RedFlames: i will point back to my first post again - i can buy iAnything from Apple. I can buy Galaxy anything from Samsung. I can buy Nexus Anything from the manufacturers who make it for Google. I can buy Lumia anything... But i can't buy any of the Surface models. They are not even trying to sell them - i mean if you got that much in stock, one would think they would try to sell their stock through other distribution channels. But no, they still are stuck to their current 20-something markets.

 

@faugusztin, I'm well aware of how badly eastern Europe gets **** on regarding tech launches [worse still for non-EU countries], most US-based companies [and some European ones] are under the assumption that everything over there is powered by goats and you've only just figured out how fire works...

The Zune [later models particularly] was great... but it didn't matter because you couldn't buy one...

Surface is a good product, but while you can buy one [well I can...], they haven't given the masses a reason to buy one... it's just another tablet [in the countries they can be arsed to sell it in]...

Maybe they'll cotton on to the fact Electricity/The internet* has made it to most of the world... and that the 'If we build it they will come' mentality really isn't working for them... maybe...


* Well the xbox lot have... sort of... but they assume because it's super-fast and awesome there, that it's the same everywhere...

 

You know it's a fail train when the sales rep recommends an ipad lol. That really happened to me at the MS booth in downtown shanghai when I was playing with one.

 

The whole world operates on virtual money, its very rare for actual cash to pass hands anymore.
You get paid with virtual money and then use that virtual money to pay your bills, credit cards, mortgage.
Do you think peoples wealth is only estimated on what cash they have in their pockets, or stuffed under the mattress ?

 

Many people naïvely think that if Bill Gates owns $67 billion, he could in theory go to the bank tomorrow and just withdraw it all. They don't realise almost all of it is tied up in shares and assets.

 

My point was that the share price is pretty much valid only for minor transactions at that exact moment, and fluctuations of share price are normal. So Bill Gates didn't lose $1.6 billion, and to be honest, if he would try to sell all his shares, price of MS share would drop much, much more.

I think Bill and MSFT will do just fine, they are back to the April 2013/September 2012 price. There were only few periods before where MSFT share price was higher - October-December 2007 and the Dot-com bubble of 1999-2001.

Plus point of owning Microsoft share is mostly not in the share price anymore, but in the dividends - $0.8-$0.9 per year, so in last 8 years you got back 1/4 of the share price back in dividends.

 

In the same way most peoples money are tied up in their house, people can borrow money based on what their assets are worth. In theory although he cant just go down the local cash machine and withdraw $67 billion,(it would take weeks to dispense that much cash )

He can borrow money based on what the lender thinks his assets are worth, in the same way people who own property can re-mortgage it to free up some money.

 

It's often seemed to me that MS have approached selling their hardware with the same attitude that they sold their OS's for years, by that I mean MS brought home computers to the masses with their OS's and adopted the attitude that everyone has to have our OS's as there is nothing else for the vast majority of home PC users so when MS release hardware products they have the same attitude and assume that it's something that everyone must have and there is no alternative, MS really need a major change of attitude to the markets and countries they are trying to sell to