Is Microsoft making money from Windows Phone???

[AG VK]

That's my point, in India people buy 4 year old iPhone because its available at a cheaper price & that's the reason windows phone sales have crossed that of iPhone sales in India before 2 years! & you really sound like you don't live in this world, you sound much like when people got to know about iPhones probably 4-5 years back

His description of the Indian user's perceptions are accurate. People do think an ancient 4 or 4S is better than an S5 or Lumia at the same price range. Apple has that sort of brand value and this is how consumers across the world think. Nobody cares that iPhones don't have SD slots, NFC and so on. I think it's WP which is actually missing many useful features, such as the ability to attach arbitrary files to email.

Your post is incoherent and does not really have a point (as usual). Can you try and explain a little more clearly and perhaps avoid ending each sentence with an exclamation mark as well?

 

[bilzkh]

By its nature Windows Phone shouldn't be all that expensive for Microsoft. At the end of the day it's developed once and then deployed to consumers. It was probably an OK business when Microsoft was selling licenses, but the challenge now is having to support it while it's given to OEMs for free. In addition, Microsoft will also have to cover some hardware development and support (e.g. firmware) on its own in-house devices. That probably isn't a big deal when it's a matter of supporting 1 or 2 core devices (e.g. Surface and Surface Pro), but dealing with Lumia 5xx, 6xx, 7xx, 8xx, 9xx, 10xx, 13xx, 15xx and the sub-regional variants (-5, -6, etc)? That's tough.

In sum, Microsoft can't sell OS licenses and it'll be a while before selling services on Windows Phone will truly begin to see dividends, especially for Bing and Office. So, how can Windows Phone make money?

Answer: Hardware.

Unless your aim was to use Windows Phone to deliver services, then having to bite the cost and push it for free is fine. But I don't think the current Microsoft leadership has that kind of patience. They'll need hardware.

Basically Microsoft needs to build an efficient and profitable phone hardware business. They need to think like one of them OEMs. I think it'd be best if they focus their efforts on a simple assortment of devices, i.e. a low-end, a mid-end and a high-end. A good idea would be to mimic the Moto E (sub-$100), Moto G (sub-$200) and one premium uber-phone with the best specs and optics to handle the latest iPhone.

 

[psoham777]

His description of the Indian user's perceptions are accurate. People do think an ancient 4 or 4S is better than an S5 or Lumia at the same price range. Apple has that sort of brand value and this is how consumers across the world think. Nobody cares that iPhones don't have SD slots, NFC and so on. I think it's WP which is actually missing many useful features, such as the ability to attach arbitrary files to email.

Your post is incoherent and does not really have a point (as usual). Can you try and explain a little more clearly and perhaps avoid ending each sentence with an exclamation mark as well?

There are around 5-6% iPhone users here in India, so nowadays people buying a 4 yr old iPhone has become very rare. People used to think that iPhones were better than S5 or other high end phones but now that's certainly not the case. iPhones were considered as a brand value, but that was years before. Apple doesn't provide any service here in India & its not gonna happen any time soon, also apple really doesn't care about it. So people tend to buy other phones, not only windows share has increased here in India but other companies like Micromax, LG, Sony, Motorola & many other companies are doing quite well here in India. Even Chinese companies like xiaomi, gionee are selling large number of phones here.

 

[a5cent]

My suggestion is to learn some accounting and finance stuff before speculating.... Good luck...

lol. That comment definitely says more about you than it does about me. Get back to me when you have a worthwhile point to make.

Reading financial reports isn't called speculating BTW. It's all there, so anyone can point out what they disagree with.

Whatever issues you have (even if they are valid), they won't change anything about the estimate itself. According to the most conservative estimates, MS spent at least a billion on WP8 marketing in 2013 (Forbes mentioned between 1.5 and 1.8 billion). That would already account for a few hundred million per quarter all by itself.