mark.fisher (2/27/2013)
Given the current state of the economy can you blame them for having a more business orientated focus. MS have been concentrating on core products, probably with a view to stabilisation rather than innovation.The buy-in of Skype isn't so different to what other innovative IT companies have done recently, and is probably a good acquisition for their push towards mobile tech across mobile and desktop platforms (i.e. windows 8). Don't forget, MS has a history of absorbing innovation, that's how SQL Server started. I also suspect the vast customer base also had an impact on the acquisition, and they probably have a lot of patents stashed away somewhere.
Even better for us data professionals is the fact that SQL Server revenue was up 16%, which shows the product is popular, solid, and selling well
I wonder how much of that increase is because of the changes to licensing in 2012 and the corresponding edition restructure. It would be nice to see some figures behind this in a future post. Perhaps there was a spending spree to beat the deadline for the price increase and the license changes?
They've been this way for over a decade, through good and bad economic times. I'm not sure the economy matters. Since Bill Gates left, perhaps before, they've been business, not technology, focused, IMHO.
The Skype thing is interesting. I like their changes with WP7/8, and think Skype could help, but they're still unfocused. The lack of vision in moving from WP7 to WP8, with lots of breaking changes, shows that.
The SQL revenue may have come from people making advanced purchased of R2, or new purchases of 2012. Not sure it matters. Still people see SQL Server as valuable and they want it.