Jan 31st 2024
Windows Weekly 866
Squishmallows With Guns
FY24 Q2 earnings, Teams worldwide outage, 1st-run experience redesign
Microsoft announced Tuesday that it earned a net income of $21.9 billion on revenues of $62 billion in the quarter ending December 31, 2023. Those figures are up 33 percent and 18 percent, respectively, year-over-year (YOY)
Microsoft earnings
- Analysis of Microsoft’s FY24 Q2
- You Can’t Spell Activision Without AI
Intelligent Cloud: Azure, AI
- Microsoft’s biggest business unit delivered $25.9 billion in revenue, up 20 percent YOY and driven primarily by its Azure cloud platform
- Azure revenues were up 30 percent in the quarter, 6 points of which Microsoft attributed to "AI services"
- Server and cloud services revenue jumped 22 percent.
- Enterprise Mobility installed base grew 11 percent to over 268 million seats
Productivity and Business Processes: Microsoft 365
- $19.2 billion in revenues, with growth of 13 percent YOY
- Office Commercial revenues were up 15 percent, and Office 365 seats grew 12 percent
- Office Consumer grew 5 percent, with the Microsoft 365 consumer offerings growing 16 percent to 78.4 million subscribers
More Personal Computing: Xbox, Windows
- Revenues of $16.9 billion, up 19 percent YOY
- Activision Blizzard has changed things: Gaming revenues surged 49 percent (44 points from Activision Blizzard)
- Activision Blizzard has changed things: Xbox content and services revenues were up 61 percent (55 points from Activision Blizzard)
- Xbox hardware revenues inched up by 3 percent
- Windows revenues from PC makers grew 11 percent in the quarter, with Microsoft citing "market volumes stabilizing to pre-pandemic levels"
- That stabilization didn't help the Surface business, as Microsoft reported a 9 percent decline in revenues from Devices
Other industry financial reports
- Google was bigger than Microsoft, with non-advertising businesses seeing growth
- Intel's struggles continue, but a light at the end of the tunnel
- AMD is not doing great. The time for AMD to gain on Intel is coming to a close
Windows
- Canary: Voice Clarity comes to more PCs, and Microsoft previews new/old Windows Setup first-run experience
- Dev: Minor bug fixes only
- Beta: Snap Layout suggestions, new settings in Widgets, and you can now revert to stable (!!)
- Chrome is finally coming to Windows on Arm. A new era?
- Microsoft Edge 121 adds several new features
- OneDrive gets a new design on the web
Microsoft 365
- Teams goes down for the count, making us realize how much we hate Teams
AI
- Microsoft adds porn deepfake guardrails to Designer AI. So, this wasn’t there before now?
- FTC is investigating Microsoft/OpenAI and other Big Tech AI partnerships
- NVIDIA RTX Video HDR can now convert SDR video to HDR
Xbox
- Microsoft can finally bring Xbox Cloud Gaming to the iPhone (and Fortnite is coming back to the iPhone in the EU)
- Xbox president joins the chorus of complaints around Apple’s EU DMA non-compliance compliance
- Xbox Series S screenshots will be restricted to Full HD
- 1900 layoffs at Activision Blizzard, Zenimax, and Xbox
Tips and Picks
- Tip of the week: Upgrade to passkeys if you use Google Password Manager and a Pixel device
- App pick of the week: Insync
- RunAs Radio this week: Software Licensing in 2024 with Mary Jo Foley
- Brown liquor pick of the week: Dailuaine 16 Flora & Fauna
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Links
- Microsoft Revenues Up 18 Percent in Quarter to $62 Billion
- Analysis of Microsoft’s FY24 Q2: You Can’t Spell Activision Without AI (Premium)
- Alphabet/Google Revenues Grow 13 Percent to $86 Billion
- A Quick Look at Windows Setup in Windows vNext
- New Windows 11 Insider Builds Are Available on the Dev and Beta Channels
- Microsoft Edge 121 Arrives with Several New Features
- Microsoft Edge May Import Your Chrome Tabs Without Your Consent
- Microsoft Edge 121 Arrives with Several New Features
- Microsoft Launches Redesigned OneDrive Web App With New People View
- Microsoft Teams Experiences a Worldwide Outage
- Microsoft Designer Adds New Safeguards to Block AI-Generated Porn Deepfakes
- FTC Launches Investigation Into Microsoft/OpenAI, Other Cloud/AI Partnerships
- Nvidia RTX Video HDR Can Now Convert SDR Videos Into HDR
- Apple Now Allows Game Streaming Apps in the App Store Worldwide
- Fortnite is Coming Back to iOS in the EU via Upcoming Epic Games Store
- Microsoft Joins Criticism of Apple’s New App Store Rules
- Game Screenshots on Xbox Series S Will Soon be Restricted to 1080p
- Microsoft is Laying Off 1,900 Employees at Activision Blizzard, Zenimax, and Xbox
- Google Eases Passkey Adoption for Pixel Users
- Quick Hands-On with Insync for Linux
- Arc Announces Arc Search, Releases iPhone App
- Software Licensing in 2024 with Mary Jo Foley
- Dailuaine 16 Years