Microsoft Reports Loss in Q2 2012

Greetings, dear readers. I red today on the New York Times (you can too, if you chase this link) that Microsoft has posted red ink for the first time in twenty years of business. Part of this can be put to an acquisition gone wrong, as well as an accounting change about how the company books reflected income from people opting for the $14.99 upgrade to Windows 8 from Windows 7, when it becomes available. Said income comes in October, making Q2 sales look comparatively weak, coupled with the fact that Windows 7 is something of a “lame-duck” operating system with Windows 8 looming in the future.
The article also touches on the fact that, on the whole, the PC market is weak right now. Tablets and smartphones are invading the typical consumer’s technology spending, and Microsoft’s footholds in that industry are relatively weak, with the Microsoft Surface in it’s infancy and the fact that Windows Phone holds a much, much smaller piece of the market than Android or iOS.