mathewi: I know it's wrong, but this shocks me more than the infidelity: “Tiger Woods Dumps Longtime Caddy After 13 Years" http://t.co/1uZMjVe
Despite their commercial appeal, gaming consoles have not historically been big moneymakers for the tech industry’s biggest firms. Sony’s PlayStation business was famously unprofitable for years, as was Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division anchored by the Xbox. But if the past several months is any lasting indication, the gaming market’s tide may finally have turned for good.
Microsoft reported Thursday that its entertainment and devices division (EDD) revenue grew 45 percent during fiscal 2011, with profits from the division surging 114 percent. And the growth is apparently speeding up: During the company’s fourth quarter which ended June 30, EDD revenues were 30 percent higher than they had been during the same quarter last year.
Microsoft’s EDD division covers the Xbox 360 entertainment platform (which includes Kinect for xBox 360), Internet protocol television software Mediaroom, and the Windows Phone. In the recent quarter, the EDD’s revenue increase was mostly attributable to sales growth in the xBox 360 platform business, the company said.
The Xbox division was cited as a significant contributing factor to Microsoft’s overall growth over the past year, the company said in a press release accompanying its earnings announcement. That in itself signifies quite a turnaround from the gaming console’s notoriously loss-making history.
Microsoft is not the only tech giant to see its gaming console division come out of the red recently. In May, Sony announced that it had finally started making money from its PlayStation business after years of financial losses. If the latest performance numbers can last for the longer term, gaming consoles may actually prove that the old axiom “patience is a virtue” can even be applied to today’s fast-paced tech world.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
window.fbAsyncInit = function() {FB.init({appId: 180650338636285, status: true, cookie: true, xfbml: true});FB.api({method: 'links.getStats',urls: 'http://gigaom.com/2011/07/21/microsoft-xbox-kinect-profits/'},function(response) {jQuery('#react-fb-count-button').html(response[0].commentsbox_count);});FB.Event.subscribe('comment.create', function(response) {var ajaxurl = 'http://gigaom.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=new_fb_comment&post_id=';jQuery.get(ajaxurl + 380193);});};var e = document.createElement('script');e.type = 'text/javascript';e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js';e.async = true;document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e);
var _comscore = _comscore || []; _comscore.push({ c1: "2", c2: "6036014" }); (function() { var s = document.createElement("script"), el = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.async = true; s.src = (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js"; el.parentNode.insertBefore(s, el); })();
Click to log in with:
Not you? Remember me Submitting comment...
;(function($){$.fn.trackClick = function(){// track the clicktry {_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', this.parents('[id!=""]:first').get(0).id, 'clicked', (this.text() || this.children('img:first').attr('alt'))]);}catch (err) {}// wait a moment for the tracking to process, then follow the linksetTimeout('document.location = "' + $(this).attr('href') + '"', 200);};$('#brand-explorer a, #navigation a, .widget-wrap a').click(function () {$(this).trackClick();return false;}); })(jQuery);
View the original article here
This post was made using the
Auto Blogging Software from
WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.
Microsoft's goal for 2012 is to make Windows Phone a solid third platform offering a viable alternative to iOS and Android. Things are already starting to look good as Windows Phone Division head Andrew Lees believes an important goal has been met: Microsoft became credible again in the phone market. 
