The economy is fine, at least for Microsoft
Updated 3 p.m., with additional comments from Microsoft on timing of Windows Server 2008.
One of the nice things about being Microsoft is that a lot of money comes in, good times and bad.
Asked Thursday about the impact Microsoft is seeing from the uncertainty in the credit markets, a top Microsoft finance executive said the company has yet to see anything particularly worrisome.
"We're not seeing anything different than what we said back in October (during an earnings conference call)," said Peter Klein, the CFO of Microsoft's business division, speaking at Credit Suisse's annual technology conference. "We haven't seen to date any impact although we are watching it very closely."
He noted that in his unit, which sells Office, Exchange Server, and SharePoint, more than 40 percent of revenue comes from long-term contracts, sales of which have been going rather well.
Pressed for details on when Microsoft might have a full-featured online version of Office, Klein didn't offer any new insight, repeating that company line that Microsoft intends to remain the leader in productivity, a line that suggests that if the company needs to offer an ad-supported or Web-based version, it will.
As for the release of Windows Server 2008, he noted that it will come at the end of the first quarter of next year, after the product's formal launch at the end of February in Los Angeles. "It will ship pretty soon after that," Klein said.
Microsoft had originally planned to ship the operating system by the end of this year, even cutting some virtualization features to try and make that date, but said in August that the code wouldn't be ready until early next year.
Update: A Microsoft representative said that Klein misspoke with regards to the timing of when Microsoft will finalize the code. "We remain on track to RTM (release to manufacturing) by the launch," the representative said.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
We'll just have to see how this all plays out in the end. Should vista tank and go the way millenium did, I'm sure microsoft will survive. It seems to me that vista's biggest competitor is XP and from the reported 10% performance gain that service pack 3 is delivering, XP may just as well stay around for many many more years. Either way, microsoft will make their money on one of them.
- They're a MONOPOLY, of course they're making money
- by technewsjunkie November 29, 2007 4:03 PM PST
- Even with mediocre products they will make money by virtue of the
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- Monopoly How?
- by jspencer09 November 30, 2007 6:36 AM PST
- Ever hear of Apple? Ever hear of Linux? OpenOffice ring a bell to you? Ever hear of iTunes? Please specify exactly how MS is a monopoly?
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- Yes... they ARE.. rather... they were....
- by jessiethe3rd January 24, 2008 2:38 PM PST
- They mastered the distribution chain and strong armed the competition. Microsoft is quiet but it still grows... they lost a lot of clout in the "cool" sector but companies are eating it up like a bum on a balonge sammich. While Microsoft may be known in the past as the "consumer" go to... they have established themselves as a corporate jugarnaut. They continue to extend the feature/functionality/benefit of Office - they keep developing products want to buy so well... they buy them. Hate all you want but while there are choices they continue to evolve and grow and many of the others (especially those from the unix crowd) tend to copy their formula versus creating their own.
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(7 Comments)fact that they have a monopoly in Windows and Office, and Media
Player.
Why should they worry?
There are PLENTY of alternatives out there, and some run far better than anything MS can put out.
Oh I'm sure you'll say Microsoft is just copying Apple right? Did you know that Microsoft's cash cow and R&D budget go to the same place... OFFICE. While Vista is important... Office is by far the most important and trust me - it is CRUSHING any competition by just providing a much better product.