爲什麼Windows給微軟賺的錢越來越少了
Microsoft’s second quarter earnings report released Monday had a few bright spots, including rising sales in mobile devices and cloud services. Overall, the company’s sales were up 8% in the quarter ending Dec. 31, though costs related to acquisitions and layoffs meant profits were down 10.6% to $5.9 billion.
上週，微軟發佈了第二財季收益報告，其中出現了一些亮點，比如移動設備和雲服務的銷售額不斷上升。雖然由於收購和裁員影響，微軟的利潤下滑了10.6%，降至59億美元，但該公司截至2014年12月31日的季度銷售額總體還是實現了8%的增長。
Despite the company’s good sales numbers, revenue from copies of its Windows operating system installed on new computers, long a reliable source of cash, were down 13% year-over-year. Why?
儘管微軟銷售額漲勢喜人，新電腦安裝Windows操作系統所帶來的收入卻同比下降了13%，要知道它一直是個可靠的收入來源。爲什麼會出現這種情況？First, the consumer PC market has been either slipping or stagnant for years, meaning there’s fewer devices capable of running Microsoft’s PC operating system being sold.
首先，個人電腦市場近年來一直不景氣，也就是說，運行微軟操作系統的個人電腦銷量減少了。
But there’s another reason that’s far more under Microsoft’s control.
但還有另一個原因是微軟完全不能控制的。Back at the end of 2013, Microsoft MSFT -9.25% was on the verge of ending technical support for Windows XP business customers. That convinced lots of IT and accounting departments it was finally time to upgrade from the decade-plus-old operating system, driving sales of Microsoft’s newer OSes, like Windows 8.
到2013年年底，微軟就已經基本不爲Windows XP的商務用戶提供技術支持了。許多公司的IT部門和財務部門因此篤信，終於是時候升級這款已有十多年曆史的舊系統了，而這將提高微軟新系統如Windows 8的銷量。However, that XP end-of-life phenomenon wasn’t around to drive sales last year, helping explain Windows’ poor year-over-year numbers. (Microsoft also said cheaper copies of Windows it sold to academic buyers cut into the category’s revenue).
然而，XP的壽終正寢並未在去年拉動Windows系統的銷量，這就解釋了Windows年度同比銷量表現低迷的原因。（微軟還表示，出售給學術機構的Windows系統售價較低，也影響了該類別的收入。）It’s safe to expect Windows to be less of a moneymaker for Microsoft in the future. Last week, the company announced that its upcoming iteration of the operating system, Windows 10, will be a free upgradefor users with older versions already installed. That’s a consumer-friendly move that should help drive adoption rates, but it will eat even further into Windows’ revenue figures. Still, if Microsoft continues to be successful in mobile and cloud services, that could more than make up for the free upgrade.
我們可以預計，Windows在未來可能不再是微軟的搖錢樹。該公司近期宣佈，即將面世的下一代操作系統Windows 10將爲舊版本的Windows用戶提供免費升級。這項舉措對消費者十分友好，應該會提高該系統的採用率，但它會進一步降低Windows的收入。不過，如果微軟能在移動和雲服務上繼續高歌猛進，由此產生的收入將足以彌補免費升級的損失。（財富中文網）
