Business Description
OPERATING SEGMENTS
We have five operating segments: Client, Server and Tools, Online Services Business, Microsoft Business Division, and Entertainment and Devices Division. Our segments provide management with a comprehensive financial view of our key businesses. The segments enable the alignment of strategies and objectives across the development, sales, marketing, and services organizations, and they provide a framework for timely and rational allocation of development, sales, marketing, and services resources within businesses. The segments also help focus strategic planning efforts on key objectives and initiatives across our businesses.
Due to our integrated business structure, operating costs included in one segment may benefit other segments. Therefore, these segments are not designed to measure operating income or loss that is directly related to the products and services included in each segment. Inter-segment cost commissions are estimated by management and used to compensate or charge each segment for such shared costs and to motivate shared effort. Segments should not be viewed as discrete or easily separable businesses.
Client. Client has overall responsibility for technical architecture, engineering, and product delivery of our Windows product family and is responsible for our relationships with personal computer manufacturers, including multinational and regional original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The segment includes sales and marketing expenses for the Windows operating system and product development efforts for the Windows platform. Client revenue growth is correlated with the growth of purchases of personal computers from OEMs that pre-install versions of Windows operating systems as the OEM channel accounts for over 80% of total Client revenue.
We released Windows Vista, the most recent version of the Windows operating system, in fiscal year 2007. This release concluded a major development phase that we believe resulted in a significantly more manageable and powerful PC operating system compared with prior releases. Windows Vista includes advances in security, digital media, user interfaces, and other areas that enhance the user and developer experience.
Client offerings consist of premium and standard edition Windows operating systems. Premium editions are those that include additional functionality and are sold at a price above our standard editions.
Products. Windows Vista, including Home, Home Premium, Ultimate, Business, Enterprise and Starter Edition; Windows XP Professional and Home; Media Center Edition; Tablet PC Edition; and other standard Windows operating systems.
Competition. Client faces strong competition from well-established companies with differing approaches to the PC market. Competing commercial software products, including variants of Unix, are supplied by competitors such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Sun Microsystems. The Linux operating system, which is also derived from Unix and is available without payment under a General Public License, has gained some acceptance as competitive pressures lead PC OEMs to reduce costs and new, lower price PC form factors gain adoption. Apple takes an integrated approach to the PC experience and has made inroads in share, particularly in the U.S. and in the consumer segment.
The Windows operating system also faces competition from alternative platforms and new devices that may reduce consumer demand for traditional personal computers. Competitors such as Mozilla offer software that competes with the Internet Explorer Web browsing capabilities of Windows products. User and usage volumes on mobile devices are increasing around the world relative to the PC.
Our operating system products compete effectively by delivering innovative software, giving customers choice and flexibility, a familiar, easy-to-use interface, compatibility with a broad range of hardware and software applications, and the largest support network for any operating system.
Server and Tools. Server and Tools develops and markets software server products, services, and solutions. Windows Server-based products are integrated server infrastructure and middleware software designed to support software applications and tools built on the Windows Server operating system. Windows Server-based products include the server platform including targeted segment solutions, database, storage, management and operations, service-oriented architecture platform, and security and identity software. The segment also builds standalone and software development lifecycle tools for software architects, developers, testers, and project managers. Server products can be run on-site, in a hosting environment, or in a Web-based environment.
We offer a broad range of consulting services and provide product support services and industry solutions. We also provide training and certification to developers and information technology professionals about our Server and Tools and Client platform products.
Approximately 45% of Server and Tools revenue comes from multi-year licensing agreements, approximately 25% is purchased through fully packaged product and transactional volume licensing programs, and approximately 10% comes from licenses sold to OEMs. The remainder of Server and Tools revenue comes from consulting and product support services.
Major releases from Server and Tools in fiscal year 2008 included Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. Windows Server 2008 provides virtualization technologies, security enhancements, new Internet tools and infrastructure, and management utilities while Visual Studio 2008 provides rapid application development, team collaboration tools, and advances in building connected applications. In fiscal year 2009, we plan to release Microsoft SQL Server 2008, which will deliver advances in database scalability, performance, security, and policy-based management.
Products and Services. Windows Server operating system; Microsoft SQL Server; Microsoft Enterprise Services; product support services; Visual Studio; System Center products; Forefront security products; Biz Talk Server; MSDN; and other products and services.
Competition. Our server operating system products face intense competition from a wide variety of server operating systems and server applications, offered by companies with a variety of market approaches. Vertically integrated computer manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Sun Microsystems offer their own versions of the Unix operating system preinstalled on server hardware. Nearly all computer manufacturers offer server hardware for the Linux operating system and many contribute to Linux operating system development. The competitive position of Linux has also benefited from the large number of compatible applications now produced by many leading commercial software developers and non-commercial software developers. A number of companies supply versions of Linux, including Novell and Red Hat. Server virtualization platform providers, such as VMware, are another form of competition for the Windows server operating system.
We have entered into business and technical collaboration agreements with Novell and other Linux providers to build, market, and support a series of solutions to enhance the interoperability of our products with their virtualization, management, and network security solutions, and to provide each other’s customers with patent coverage for their respective products.
We compete to provide enterprise-wide computing solutions with several companies that offer solutions and middleware technology platforms. IBM and Sun Microsystems lead a group of companies focused on the Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE). Commercial software developers that provide competing server applications for PC-based distributed client/server environments include CA, Inc., IBM, and Oracle. Our Web application platform software competes with open source software such as Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, and we compete against Java middleware such as JBoss, Geronimo, and Spring Framework.
Numerous commercial software vendors offer competing commercial software applications for connectivity (both Internet and intranet), security, hosting, and e-business servers. System Center competes with Hewlett-Packard, BMC, CA, Inc., and IBM in the management of information technology infrastructures, while our Forefront line of business security products compete with McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro in protecting both client and server applications. Our products for software developers compete against offerings from Adobe, BEA Systems, Borland, IBM, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and other companies. These offerings include open source projects like Eclipse (sponsored by IBM and Oracle). We believe that our server products provide customers with advantages in innovation, performance, total costs of ownership, and productivity by delivering superior applications, development tools, and compatibility with a broad base of hardware and software applications, security, and manageability.
Online Services Business The Online Services Business (OSB) consists of an on-line advertising platform with offerings for both publishers and advertisers, personal communications services such as email and instant messaging, online information offerings such as Live Search, and the MSN portals and channels around the world. We earn revenue primarily from online advertising, including search, display, and email and messaging services. Revenue is also generated through subscriptions and transactions generated from online paid services, from advertiser and publisher tools, digital marketing and advertising agency services, and from MSN narrowband Internet access subscribers. We continue to launch new online offerings and expect to do so in the future. During fiscal year 2008, we launched new releases of Windows Live Search, the Windows Live suite of applications and services, and updated our MSN Video Service. In addition, we launched a new release of adCenter, our proprietary advertising platform, and also expanded our advertising platform portfolio through acquisitions.
We acquired a number of companies during the fiscal year, the most significant of which was aQuantive, Inc., a digital marketing business that we expect will play a key role in the future development of our Online Services Business. We believe the acquisition will help us build and support next-generation advertiser and publisher solutions for cross media planning, video-on-demand, and Internet protocol television.
Products. Live Search; MSN; MapPoint; MSN Internet Access; MSN Premium Web Services (consisting of MSN Internet Software Subscription, MSN Hotmail Plus, and MSN Software Services); Windows Live; MSN Mobile Services; AvenueA Razorfish media agency services; Atlas online tools for advertisers; and the Drive PM ad network for publishers.
Competition. OSB competes with AOL, Google, Yahoo!, and a wide array of Web sites and portals that provide content and online offerings of all types to end users. We compete with these organizations to provide advertising opportunities for merchants. OSB also competes for narrowband Internet access users with AOL, Earthlink, and other ISPs for dial-up Internet access in the United States. The Internet advertising industry has grown significantly over the past several years, and we anticipate that this trend will continue. Competitors are aggressively developing Internet offerings that seek to provide more effective ways of connecting advertisers with audiences through enhanced functionality in communication services, improvements in information services such as Internet search, and improved advertising infrastructure and support services. We have developed our own algorithmic search engine to provide end users with more relevant search results, expanded search services, and a broader selection of content. To support the growth of our advertising business, we also are investing in our communication services, technology, operations, and sales efforts. We will continue to introduce new products and services, including Windows Live services that are aimed at attracting additional users through improvements in the user online experience. As consumers migrate from narrowband to broadband Internet access, we expect our narrowband Internet access subscriber base to continue to decline and this portion of our business to decrease in importance. We believe that we can compete effectively across the breadth of our Internet services by providing users with software innovation in the form of information and communication services that help them find and use the information and experiences they want online and by providing merchants with effective advertising results through improved systems and sales support.
Microsoft Business Division. Microsoft Business Division (MBD) offerings consist of the Microsoft Office system and Microsoft Dynamics business solutions. Microsoft Office system products are designed to increase personal, team, and organization productivity through a range of programs, services, and software solutions. Growth of revenue from the Microsoft Office system offerings, which generate over 90% of MBD revenue, depends on our ability to add value to the core Office product set and to continue to expand our product offerings in other information worker areas such as content management, enterprise search, collaboration, unified communications and business intelligence. Microsoft Dynamics products provide business solutions for financial management, customer relationship management, supply chain management, and analytics applications for small and mid-size businesses, large organizations, and divisions of global enterprises.
We evaluate MBD results based upon the nature of the end user in two primary parts—business revenue which includes Microsoft Office system revenue generated through volume licensing agreements and Microsoft Dynamics revenue, and consumer revenue which includes revenue from retail packaged product sales and OEM revenue. Approximately 80% of MBD revenue is generated from sales to businesses. Revenue from this category generally depends upon the number of information workers in a licensed enterprise and is therefore relatively independent of the number of PCs sold in a given year. Approximately 20% of MBD revenue is derived from sales to consumers. Most of this revenue is generated from new licenses acquired through fully packaged products and licenses sold through OEMs for new PCs and is generally affected by the level of PC shipments and product launches.
Products. Microsoft Office; Microsoft Project; Microsoft Visio; Microsoft Office SharePoint Server; Microsoft PerformancePoint; Microsoft Office Live; FAST ESP; Microsoft Exchange Server; Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services; Microsoft Office Live Meeting; Microsoft Office Communication Server; Microsoft Office Communicator; Microsoft Tellme Service, Microsoft Dynamics AX; Microsoft Dynamics CRM; Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online; Microsoft Dynamics GP; Microsoft Dynamics NAV; Microsoft Dynamics SL; Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System; Microsoft Partner Program; and Microsoft Office Accounting.
Competition. Competitors to the Microsoft Office system include many software application vendors such as Apple, Corel, Google, IBM, Novell, Oracle, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, and local application developers in Europe and Asia. IBM (Smartsuite) and Corel (WordPerfect Suite) have measurable installed bases with their office productivity products. Apple may distribute certain of its application software products with various models of its PCs. The OpenOffice.org project provides a freely downloadable cross-platform application that also has been adapted by various commercial software vendors to sell under their brands, including IBM, Novell, Red Hat, and Sun. Corel’s suite and many local software suites around the world are aggressively priced for OEMs to preinstall on low-priced PCs. Google has launched Google Apps, a hosted messaging and productivity suite, and also provides an enterprise search offering that competes with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for Search, our new enterprise search product. Web-based offerings such as AjaxWrite, gOffice, iNetOffice, SimDesk, ThinkFree, wikiCalc, or other small projects competing with individual applications, can also provide an alternative to Microsoft Office system products. IBM has many different points of competition with Office system products with its Notes and Workplace offerings.
As we continue to respond to market demand for additional functionality and products, we will compete with additional vendors, most notably in enterprise content management and search, collaboration tools, unified communications, and business intelligence. These competitors include Autonomy, Cisco, Endeca, Google, IBM, Oracle, and SAP.
Our Microsoft Dynamics products compete with well-known vendors such as Intuit and Sage in the market focused on providing solutions for small and mid-sized businesses. The market for large organizations and divisions of global enterprises is intensely competitive with a small number of primary vendors including Oracle and SAP. These vendors are positioning many of their business applications to focus more intensely on small and mid-sized businesses. Additionally Salesforce.com’s on-demand customer relationship management offerings compete directly with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Microsoft Dynamic CRM’s on-premise offerings. We believe our products compete effectively with these vendors based on our strategy of providing interoperable, adaptable solutions that work well with technologies our customers already have.
Entertainment and Devices Division. The Entertainment and Devices Division (EDD) is responsible for developing, producing, and marketing the Xbox video game system, including consoles and accessories, third-party games, games published under the Microsoft brand, and Xbox Live operations, as well as research, sales, and support of those products. In addition to Xbox, we offer the Zune digital music and entertainment device; PC software games; online games; Mediaroom, our Internet protocol television software; mobile and embedded device platforms, Surface computing platform; and other devices. EDD also leads the development efforts of our line of consumer software and hardware products including application software for Macintosh computers and Microsoft PC hardware products, and is responsible for all retail sales and marketing for Microsoft Office and the Windows operating systems.
Products. Xbox 360 console and games; Xbox Live; Zune; Mediaroom; numerous consumer software and hardware products (such as mice and keyboards); Windows Mobile software and services platform; Windows Embedded device operating system; Windows Automotive; and Surface computing platform.
Competition. Entertainment and devices businesses are highly competitive, characterized by rapid product life cycles, frequent introductions of new products and titles, and the development of new technologies. The markets for our products are characterized by significant price competition. We anticipate continued pricing pressure from our competitors. From time to time, we have responded to this pressure by reducing prices on certain products. Our competitors vary in size from very small companies with limited resources to very large, diversified corporations with substantial financial and marketing resources. We compete primarily on the basis of product innovation, quality and variety, timing of product releases, and effectiveness of distribution and marketing.
Our Xbox hardware business competes with console platforms from Nintendo and Sony, both of which have a large, established base of customers. The lifecycle for video game consoles averages five to seven years. We released Xbox 360, our second generation console, in November 2005. Nintendo and Sony released new versions of their game consoles in late 2006. We believe the success of video game consoles is determined by the availability of games for the console, providing exclusive game content that gamers seek, the computational power and reliability of the console, and the ability to create new revenue sources such as advertising and downloadable content. We think the Xbox 360 is positioned well against competitive console products based on significant innovation in hardware architecture, new developer tools, expanded revenue sources, and continued strong exclusive content from our own game franchises such as Halo.
In addition to competing against software published for non-Xbox platforms, our games business also competes with numerous companies that we have licensed to develop and publish software for the Xbox consoles. Zune competes with the Apple iPod and other digital music and entertainment devices. Our PC hardware products face aggressive competition from computer and other hardware manufacturers, many of which are also current or potential partners. Mediaroom faces competition primarily from a variety of competitors that provide elements of an Internet protocol television delivery platform, but that do not provide end-to-end solutions for the network operator. Windows Mobile software and services faces substantial competition from Apple, Nokia, Openwave Systems, Palm, QUALCOMM, Research In Motion, and Symbian. The embedded operating system business is highly fragmented with many competitive offerings. Key competitors include IBM, Wind River, and versions of embeddable Linux from commercial Linux vendors such as Metrowerks and MontaVista Software.