For many analysts, how Microsoft behaves serves as a thermometer for the rest of the technology industry, especially for the most corporate. And as we’ll see below, when we review how the Redmonds have performed in 2022, we will discover that the last one has been fundamentally a year of transition.
Without huge announcements on either front, the company has made adequate progress on its hardware lineup and somewhat “stumbling” in Windows development. 11. Most of the headlines, however, have been related to the acquisition of Activision, in an operation that promised to make it the undisputed queen of video games, but that is giving it more problems than it could have foreseen when it decided to sign a contract. check for 70,000 million dollars to take over the company.
Windows 11…half
Windows 11 did not start off on the best foot in 2021, but those from Redmond seem to have improved their course in 2022. Many of the great innovations that were expected for the new Microsoft operating system have been deployed in recent months and particularly in the “Windows 11 2022 Update” that saw some of the features most demanded by users arrive on the desktop. Among these, the long-awaited “tabs” for the file explorer, or a much more functional taskbar that recovered some features that had been eliminated, such as being able to anchor items on it by dragging them with the mouse.
After an update policy that in recent years it would be fair to define as “erratic”, last year it also seems that the company has reached a consensus solution and explained that from now on, there would only be one major annual update of Windows 11. Minor updates, if any, would roll out in what the company has dubbed as “Moments” and, in any case, they will not imply the deployment of outstanding features in the OS
Despite everything, in 2022 the feeling that Windows 11 remains an immature operating system has remained, as evidenced by the numerous updates that have been released to polish the less consistent aspects of the graphical interface, or bug fixes, some so Serious as they prevented many users from being able to print normally.
All of this has ended up being reflected in the adoption figures for the new OS According to Statcounter, only 16% of Windows usersThey are currently using Windows 11. It is not exactly a spectacular percentage, if we take into account that we are talking about an operating system that has been on the market for more than a year and that “old” ones such as Windows 7 continue to hold at 10%. It is also true that part of these figures are explained because a significant part of Windows 10 users (which currently has a 30% market share) cannot upgrade their computers to Windows 11 because they do not meet the hardware requirements. required. Microsoft itself acknowledges in this sense that the adoption of Windows 11 will be slower than it has been in the past for other systems.
With everything and despite some problems, the truth is that Windows 11 is proving to be a good “facelift” and update of many of the ideas we saw in Windows 10. And perhaps, the only thing we can regret is that Microsoft has not been more agile and diligent in fixing bugs and introducing changes.
Surface without surprises
As we expected, in 2022 Microsoft also renewed most of its Surface devices, with interesting news. Last June, the company presented its Surface Laptop Go 2, which offered slight improvements over the original model and remained a good option for students and users looking for a computer for not too demanding tasks.
Already in autumn, the company almost completely renewed its range and released some of the models most in demand by professionals and companies: Surface Pro 9 and Surface Laptop 5. In addition, we were able to see the second generation of its convertible computer: Surface Studio 2+
And while of course all the products came with interesting features, none of these seemed to particularly impress the analysts. For starters, the Surface Laptop 5 turned out to be an overpriced device for a laptop that has been shown to suffer from performance issues in various situations. Better sensations transmitted his Surface Pro 9, which for the first time came to the market in two flavors: a 5G model governed by the ARM chip from Qualcomm (SQ3) and a more powerful one that continues to rely on the latest Intel processors.
The Surface Studio 2+ it received only a minor update, as denoted by the 2+ (rather than a 3) which sums up what’s happened on the Surface front overall: nothing particularly noteworthy on the negative front, but no headline-grabbing awesomeness either in press.
A headache called Activision
In January, Microsoft announced its intention to acquire the gaming giant Activision Blizzard for approximately 70 billion dollars. Activision is known for such well-known franchises as Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, World of Warcraft…. It was not just any operation and in fact, it aroused misgivings from the outset.
In the eyes of the competition, it meant that while Xbox Game Pass subscribers would be able to enjoy some of the biggest titles on the market right out of the box, users of competitors like Sony would find themselves at a clear disadvantage. And so many misgivings has aroused that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a lawsuit to block the purchase.
In the text of the lawsuit, the FTC has pointed out that Microsoft has used companies it has bought before, such as ZeniMax Media, to make several high-end titles, such as Starfield or Redfall, exclusive to devices with its software. According to Holly Bedova, Director of the FTC’s Office of Competition, “Microsoft has already shown that it can, and that it will remove content from its gaming rivals. We want to prevent Microsoft from gaining control of a leading independent studio and using it to hurt competition in many fast-growing and dynamic gaming markets.” The step that the FTC has taken against Microsoft, after several months of investigation into the agreement, highlights one of the main efforts of the United States government to stop the big technology companies, which have become some of the companies of highest value in the world. In addition, Microsoft is also facing problems in going ahead with this purchase with the regulators of the United Kingdom and the European Union.
cloud forts
In line with recent years, the American multinational once again demonstrated that a large part of its future lies in its good health in the cloud, with Azure as the clear protagonist.
Cloud revenue was strong from the start of the year, and then in October, fiscal 2023 first quarter results showed that while the Windows division saw a 15% drop mainly due to the slowdown in the PC market , cloud revenues continued to grow at double digits, in this case marking a rise of no less than 24%.
In the first quarter of the new fiscal year alone, Microsoft posted revenue of $25.7 billion related to its cloud business (half of the total), showing once again, in case anyone was still wondering, where the real business is. of the American multinational
Microsoft made $25.7 billion in just one quarter, more than half of its total revenue for that period, if you had any doubts about where the future lies for growing the software giant’s coffers.
