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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.
(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.