from the perhaps-they-should-have-asked-Cortana dept.
The job cuts were revealed in paperwork filed on Thursday with US financial watchdog the SEC. The doomed staff will leave the business by the end of next June. They all work in Microsoft's sales teams and its Windows Phone hardware division. [...] We understand 900 people in the global sales unit have already learned of their fate.
As for the latest redundancies, here's the relevant sections of Microsoft's annual 10-K report to the SEC:
In addition to the elimination of 1,850 positions that were announced in May 2016, approximately 2,850 roles globally will be reduced during the year as an extension of the earlier plan, and these actions are expected to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2017.
As of June 30, 2016, we employed approximately 114,000 people on a full-time basis, 63,000 in the U.S. and 51,000 internationally. Of the total employed people, 38,000 were in operations, including manufacturing, distribution, product support, and consulting services; 37,000 in product research and development; 29,000 in sales and marketing; and 10,000 in general and administration.
While the layoffs affect just 2.5 per cent of Microsoft's workforce, they are very precise and telling cuts: Windows-powered mobiles managed to seize just three per cent of the global smartphone market, and now Redmond is dismantling that failed operation.
Related Stories
Bill Gates has said that he thinks everyone would be using Windows Mobile right now and not Android if it weren't for his distractions and the antitrust investigation that his company got caught into.
"There's no doubt that the antitrust lawsuit was bad for Microsoft, and we would have been more focused on creating the phone operating system and so instead of using Android today you would be using Windows Mobile," Gates claimed during his speech at The New York Times' DealBook Conference.
[...] Microsoft cofounder also revealed that the company was almost launching Windows Mobile on a Motorola handset but missed out on it by a few months, giving Android an unbeatable advantage. While there were a lot of factors, Gates says it's this 3-months delay that led to Android's supremacy and the downfall of any mobile efforts by Microsoft.
"We were just three months too late on a release Motorola would have used on a phone, so yes it's a winner takes all game."
Related:
Nadella: Microsoft Isn't Killing Windows Phone and Will Go It Alone
Steve Balmer: Use Android to Save Windows Phone
Microsoft Breaks its Windows 10 Mobile Upgrade Promise
Microsoft Axes 2,850 More Windows Phone, Sales Staff
Windows Phone Dies, Aged 6
It's Been 5 Years Already, Let's Gawp at Microsoft and Nokia's Bloodbath
Microsoft is Embracing Android as the Mobile Version of Windows
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @12:14AM
The laid-off losers can get grueling warehouse jobs. There will be money in delivering cheap crap to idiots for a few more years, until all warehouses go all-robot and delivery drones fill the skies and blot out the sun.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @04:28PM
Wonder if they'll make robot consumers so the warehouse robots have somewhere to deliver to.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @12:21AM
And nothing of value was lost!
(Score: 5, Funny) by aristarchus on Saturday July 30 2016, @12:29AM
How is it possible that there were more employees than Windows phones?
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday July 30 2016, @04:09AM
That doesn't appear to be true. An article from last July said that, based on figures released by the company,
—http://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-now-sold-100-million-windows-phones/ [mspoweruser.com]
The aerospace industry comes to mind as one in which items are mass-produced, yet the number of employees often exceeds number of items made.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MostCynical on Saturday July 30 2016, @04:38AM
100 million? Where they all retail sales, or were some given away in cereal packets?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Interesting) by butthurt on Saturday July 30 2016, @05:33AM
Neither, I believe. It isn't stated in that article, but elsewhere I read that Microsoft had reported "sales to carriers and to retailers."
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2197291/smartphones/microsoft-windows-phone-7-sales-top-1-5-million-units-out-of-the-gate.html [networkworld.com]
http://www.mobilevenue.com/windows-phone-7-sales-figures-announced-12214506/ [mobilevenue.com]
You seem to be implying, perhaps facetiously, that Microsoft's mobile phones were sold for less than the cost of production, even to the point of being given away en masse. Your implication, I suppose, is that labour savings were had in the marketing and sales departments. Even if that's true, labour was still needed to design the phones, manufacture them, and sell or give them away.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday July 30 2016, @05:59AM
Microsoft's annual reports will no doubt show (somewehere, in the fine detail) how much each phone cost to manufacture.
The issue, for me, is how they convinced 100 million people to spend *any* money buying one of the handsets.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @08:12AM
Neither, I believe. It isn't stated in that article, but elsewhere I read that Microsoft had reported "sales to carriers and to retailers."
So, they are still sitting on the store shelves?
I hope they did not ship them with batteries installed... else a lot of phones by now will have a gooey mess where the battery used to be.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Saturday July 30 2016, @07:09PM
I hope they did not ship them with batteries installed
Microsoft phones don't need a battery :-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @05:46AM
Ahh yes.... that was the design that used the string, no?
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday July 30 2016, @10:00PM
I would assume that, like every other manufacturer, Microsoft uses a lithium polymer batteries. I've never seen such a battery leak, if that's what you're describing. Why manufacturers always package the battery separately from the phone, rather than pre-installing it, I don't know. I assume it's to minimise discharge of the battery prior to purchase.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @05:55AM
Apparently, the phones are made to where they never really completely shut off so they can still receive commands from "headquarters".
My phone's battery dies even if I have the phone OFF. So this is just my conjecture of what would produce what I observe.
I speculate the commands would be listening in to the microphone, relaying back images from the onboard camera, my GPS location, or my contact list? Or maybe a program to route my calls for special observation. While I thought my phone was OFF?
Seems the only way to be sure its off is to remove the battery and wrap the phone in a tinfoil bag in case it has a backup battery inside it.
( In this case, the tinfoil hat is not for me - rather, its for my phone!)
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday July 31 2016, @08:51AM
It could be that, or there could be more prosaic reasons such as self-discharge of the battery, or power needed to operate the power button.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @03:32PM
Part of the severance package?
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday July 30 2016, @05:54PM
In 2010, each of Microsoft's 90,000 employees was given a phone.
http://www.windowscentral.com/att-get-8-million-windows-phone-7-devices-so-will-90000-microsoft-employees [windowscentral.com]
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday July 30 2016, @06:38AM
That doesn't appear to be true.
And you think this has any bearing on the Fine Article at all? Not True? Regarding MICROS~.ddd? I thought you had more intelligence, butthurt. Or at least less butthurt.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @10:08AM
I think that mspoweruser.com left out a word.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday July 30 2016, @05:45PM
Well put. Yes, Microsoft's offerings would be more successful in the market if they didn't phone home to the mothership so much. Why put up with that when there are alternatives that respect one's privacy?
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday July 30 2016, @12:32AM
Forcing a UI better-suited to a phone or tablet onto a desktop wasn't the first of their idiotic decisions.
However, I can think of one business decision more idiotic than that - Apple's no-button mouse. Fucking pants-on-head retarded, especially for a platform famous for media work.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @12:49AM
I like having the same UI on my tablet and my laptop and I use Win8.1 desktop view on both, with a narrow taskbar on the laptop and a wide taskbar on the tablet.
I have a "no-button" mouse too, and it's just like a one-button mouse except the button is inconspicuously located on the bottom side.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @01:05AM
I like having the same UI on my tablet and my laptop and I use Win8.1
Yeah, of course you do! I mean, why else would anyone admit to such a thing, unless they actually did like this? It really could not be the case that a certain corporation, while firing its Windows Phone related personnel, would pay for people to pretend on-line that they actually use and like Windows 8.1, and have the greatest enthusiasm for the upgrade [sic] to Windows 10. No, that just is beyond the realm of possibility. What we have here is just an ordinary AC. Really! No, I mean it. Please just walk away. Please! I needed the money, dammit!! It was shill for Microsoft, or start producing meth in my bathtub!! I had no choice! Don't blame me, blame intellectual property
law!!!
(The one button mouse thing was just my cry for help. Help?)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @07:22PM
Go West, young AC.
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @01:27AM
It's easier to insert the mouse into own's ass without any jagged buttons. That was probably the idea.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday July 30 2016, @01:52AM
Steve Jobs as the salesman enjoyed putting his smooth creations up his own ass, because that's the ultimate test of user-friendliness. Wozniak put them up his nose. Either way, there was a lot of stretching going on.
I can imagine the internal meetings revealing the products-to-be with a bunch of normal people, who weren't fetishists in the matter, to attend.
And what those "visionaries" were telling the crowd was,
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @02:08AM
What does Disney have to do with Microsoft's phone downsizing? :)
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday July 30 2016, @02:30AM
I dunno. I was modded down to zero (0) for saying all that. Damned if I know and you know.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday July 30 2016, @05:14AM
now Redmond is dismantling that failed operation
Now if only they'd dismantle the failed phone-UI-on-desktop-OS operation as well. And the spyware-everywhere operation. And the you-really-wanted-all-ads-all-the-time-didnt-you operation. And the...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @09:48AM
If only... that axe... swung a little higher up...
nah, still no loss.
hmm, maybe some real improvement.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @01:52AM
General and Administration.
Kind of telling if that skews more general than administration, eh?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @01:58AM
administration than general, eh?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @02:01AM
You didn't upgrade your PC to Windows 10! Thousands were laid off as a result.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @02:57AM
Add here the best joke you've got. Make us proud. And mod the parent up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @04:05PM
N/t: I will proudly wear that as a badge of honor.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday July 30 2016, @09:19AM
I just bought a car at Mrs Turgid's insistence, mainly for her to use. The brand she insisted on has software from Microsoft for its navigation and in-car entertainment systems... Still, Slackware 14.2 just came out and my official installation media are in the post.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @06:04AM
If I had seen a Microsoft logo pop up in a car I was considering, I would not help but remember all the nagging I got from my desktop to do this and that or I won't be "supported".
That kinda crap is fine if someone else is paying for my time. Businessmen do not seem to mind paying for stuff or losing time over this kind of stuff.
But I do.
Microsoft is for the Business Office. I need something a little more robust in a car. It *has* to work. If its some juvenile software that always has to get permission from its daddy to do anything, I really have little need for something so unrobust in my personal life.
I see no use for a computer in a car at all, but one does come in handy for just monitoring things and letting me know if something's amiss. I may go as far as microcontroller for timing and fuel mix trim, but that's where I draw the line on how much authority I personally feel comfortable granting to a machine full of proprietary software.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Saturday July 30 2016, @02:49AM
Windows CE had a decade head start and is now circling the BlackBerry drain as Windows whatever.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday July 30 2016, @03:56AM
To be fair, MS doesn't know how to enter a market if somebody else doesn't get it to the verge of mainstream acceptance.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday July 30 2016, @06:24AM
Windows CE...
Gee, I had just bought a HMI on one of Saelig's clearance sales, hoping to use it with my Arduino-compatibles as part of a SCADA system for my van.
When I powered the thing up, first thing it does is give me the Microsoft logo. Windows CE.
Sure, I know I can replace the startup flash screen, but the first thing that comes to mind is what do I do if the thing suddenly starts demanding I connect it to the net to download a new OS? Can I really trust this thing if I am embedding it into something else? Will it work even 10 years from now ( the van is already over 20 years old, and I expect it to last me another 20. No kidding. I got 40 years from my Toyota Corolla, and its nowhere near as rugged as this old Ford E-350 ).
The Toyota still runs fine... Everything in it is worn out though, and my needs have changed since I got it. When I got it - I needed inexpensive transportation to get me to and from work, which it did every day for over 40 years. Being I am no longer corporately employed, I now need something that will haul me - and my stuff - as I have my own tools and equipment now, and if someone engages me to do something for them, I will usually have everything I need to do it in the van.
My previous experiences with Microsoft is constantly having to patch it and trust third parties to fix its security holes, as well as that constant lingering threat that if I do not obey, something is going to time out and I will be left with a brick because something else must authorize it to run.
Well, I'll keep the thing for some corporate-type show&tell, as I know the corporate types are impressed by stuff like this... but I had to re-order the HMI panel that I am programming for my van. I am hoping the "DELTA" I am getting does not have the Microsoft in it. When I put that much of my personal time into building something, I have all intentions of doing it once, doing it right, and having it work until I decommission it.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by NCommander on Saturday July 30 2016, @06:26AM
The problem with Windows CE was it was a palmtop OS shoehorned onto a phone. I owned several CE devices, and for a long time, they were the most powerful and versatile portable devices I had. With CE, I could easily go into the filesystem, and change out system components if I wanted. It was basically Windows 95* with a different UI. In comparison, PalmOS was extremely simplistic and limited, and neither S60 nor Prism had much marketshare in the US. Installing apps generally involved running an installer or copying EXEs like Windows.
What killed CE was basically the fact that it was never a polished system; it suffered from the "jack of all trades, master of none" problem, and it made a pretty losey phone. Palm's Treo line was basically the same thing, decent PDA, horrible phone. Same was true of BlackBerry. That taint more or less carried onto Windows Phone 7 (which isn't bad, my mom is a fairly dedicated Windows phone user, she's had several, and even a Windows RT tablet).
What made iOS and Android break out in 2007 was they were legitimately good phones with the ability to do more. Even then, unless you have a rooted Android device, what you can do with said devices feels far more limited than what I was doing in 2000 with a Windows CE device, and embedded Visual C++.
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Saturday July 30 2016, @06:30AM
The * got deleted by accident. To prevent nitpicking, I'm aware that 95 and CE have no commonalty between the two of them beside a name. NT was very much limited to businesses at the time, so at the high point of Microsoft's mobile domination, the comparsion was basically between CE and 95/98.
Honestly, I'd love to see a modern replacement for the HP Jornada. I used to use a Palm VIIx with the Palm Keyboard as a mobile work platform, and its hard to find anything that comes close to that. Using Android with a BT keyboard is an extremely sucky experience in comparison.
Still always moving
(Score: 3, Informative) by pvanhoof on Saturday July 30 2016, @11:13AM
Having developed on WinCE I can tell you it's not Win95 with a new UI. It's much more like MS Dos + Win 3.11. For example is CreateFileMapping (that's mmap, on real operating systems) implemented by simply copying the file in memory for each process again. That means that it doesn't do what you expect it do to when using DLL files: every process will trigger the entire DLL to be copied into RAM.
How I know this? Well. Our application was Qt4 based. The Qt4 DLLs are relatively big. Although the binaries where not statically linked, every process was getting the entire copy of the Qt DLLs in real memory. Actually, every thread was. Not just every process.
So really, WinCE is not a good OS at all. Unless you want MS Dos with a little bit of UI.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NCommander on Saturday July 30 2016, @11:32PM
I'm aware CE internally under the hood has little in common. Programming for it wasn't a whole lot of fun either with everything having to use unicode everything, and some of the internal APIs being down right strange (DLL behavior you menthoned is one of them), though it was better than coding for PalmOS's which was much more constrained and painful. I used prc-tools for that, but I never heard anything good said about the official Metroworks environment. I never coded for Symbian, but I've heard people still curse that to this day.
What I was getting fact was in terms of user experience, CE was the best at a portable computer environment especially once you added a keyboard. Where it fell through was it was a rather miserable phone experience, combined with the fact that cell vendors usually tended to pour on so much crap on low specs as to make it an unresponsive POS.
Still always moving
(Score: 1) by AssCork on Saturday July 30 2016, @03:24AM
Googling around shows a lot of "Lead Windows Phone Developer" positions open - I'm sure the poor guys that just got notice in Microsoft's secret underground "Windows Phone" development lair will be able to land on their feat in a cushy position somewhere else.
Because nobody would think that platform would be Nokia'd, right?
Just popped-out of a tight spot. Came out mostly clean, too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @03:27AM
It's not like Microsoft's hired any Americans in the past 20 years - they're one of the biggest H1-Busers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @03:43AM
Stephen Elop will be running for elective office any day now, on the platform of being a business genius who can Make America Great Again.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Saturday July 30 2016, @04:41AM
Microsoft only had 3% of the market so they fire everyone and burn their phone business to the ground? So stupid. Doesn't it make more sense to scale their personnel down to support a 3% market share? That's still a small mountain of money. Why would anyone ever buy a windows phone again? Developers won't waste their time building apps for a platform that will melt down in only a few short years. All that time spent learning the phone SDK is wasted.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday July 30 2016, @10:11AM
>Microsoft only had 3% of the market so they fire everyone and burn their phone business to the ground? So stupid.
I guess they make enough money without investing a dime by software patents regarding Android and patents from Nokia portfolio.
The real stupid is Nokia, who did not impale Elop on a rusty enough pole of his burning platform.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Subsentient on Saturday July 30 2016, @07:21AM
Burn to the ground!
All of MSFT!
May Microsoft rapidly weaken and in 2 years be purchased by a no-name Chinese smartphone manufacturer.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @05:58PM
MS employees aren't people. they are the enemies of free humanity. I hope they all get hooked on heroin and have to turn tricks like the whores they were at their old job.