That was a very good commentary, it appears as if you have left out a few significant parameters though.
Primarily, Windows NT 4.0 is the most significant OS MSFT has produced to date. Although Win95 received most of the marketing glitz, it is NT that should show the real revenue "blip" onthe MSFT charts. The street price for NT is nearly four times that of Win95 and the server's price is nearly seven times W95 price (depending on licensure). The margins on NT should be significantly higher as well, due to the fact that MSFT has allegedely streamlined their R&D and production operations through reusable component practices (I don't know if that is 100% accurate, but those out there in the software world should be able to fill me in), not to mention the fact that even if the cost of development were the same, revenues on the product are SIGNIFICANTLY higher. NT corporate sales have reached record levels and the rate of increase is quite significant. According to MSFT officials "At the operating-system level, Microsoft's Windows NT Server is already outshipping all flavors of Unix combined, and it is outshipping Novell Inc.'s Netware as well. The momentum is growing at a phenomenal rate. For example, we shipped more units of Windows NT Server in August than we did in all of this year's first quarter." It is the lucrative enterprise market that allows ORCL such lofty revenues, and until the release of NT 4.0 of just a month or two ago, MSFT was a bit player. Now that MSFT has successfully cracked the market, you will see some enterprise style revenue increases.
Add to that the fact that MSFT's accountants smooth out OS revenue by deferring it over a set number of years and you realize that the impact of Win 95 sales were probably much more significant than shown in the 1995/6 figures. This, added to the sale of the new Enterprise/corporate products should produce some significant revenue results. |
