2016-04-21

Microsoft’s $20.5B quarter: Office up, Surface up, cloud booming | Ars Technica

Microsoft’s $20.5B quarter: Office up, Surface up, cloud booming | Ars TechnicaSurface revenue looked better; it was about $1.1 billion, up 56 percent year-on-year, driven by Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. Gaming revenue grew 6 percent in constant currency, with 11 percent increase in game revenue partially offset by reduced revenue from hardware sales. Xbox Live users are up year-on-year to 46 million, but sequentially this is actually a decline; last quarter, Microsoft had 48 million monthly active Xbox Live users.

I think you'd actually have to be a complete moron to disregard the chances of success for the Surface. Look at the XBox. Literally, Nintendo had a 20 year head start. Did it make a difference? Not really. Microsoft is adapting. Is Apple adapting? Can't quite tell. It more looks like they're reshaping themselves as a high end jewelry brand. Let's see how that pans out. I can't think of one Apple fan who buys their hardware because it matches their Manolo Blahniks. But I'm probably wrong. And I think teenagers are actually very, very smart and change technology platforms and apps effortlessly. iPhone today, Galaxy tomorrow. It's the old fogies who need the iPad to be kind of a reliably simplistic brain-dead Mac. Kids can learn Raspberry Pi. They haven't accepted the assault of self-limitation quite yet.

Wait, did someone say dumb terminal? Thin client?

I'd love to write apps in ObjC on the Surface and for the Surface. Almost. There.

Bill Gurley says Silicon Valley's unicorn fantasy is collapsing in on itself — Quartz

Bill Gurley says Silicon Valley's unicorn fantasy is collapsing in on itself — Quartz: "Top tech dealmaker Bill Gurley has a dire message for Silicon Valley: The unicorn fantasy is unraveling. Fast."
It's amazing to think that these VC's lived through the dot com bust of 2000 and learned nothing.