13 Most Important Microsoft Product Lines
Microsoft is an unusual company for the sheer number of product lines
that bring in more than a billion dollars. While the company doesn't
break out revenues for all of its product lines, Communications Director
Frank Shaw famously revealed Microsoft's billion-dollar businesses to
the TechFlash news blog last year. Under those businesses, of course,
are Microsoft's most important product lines.
1. Windows Microsoft's bread and butter is Windows and despite
some who predict its demise, the OS is doing quite well. Microsoft
revealed that it has sold 400 million copies of its latest version,
Windows 7. Still, Microsoft faces challenges. PC growth is slowing and
with the most drastic overhaul ever of Windows planned for Windows 8, it
remains to be seen how the market responds to the product's new tile-
and touch-focused UI.
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2. Office Anyone who knows anything about Microsoft is aware
how important its Office franchise is to the company. Microsoft has
shipped 100 million copies of Office 2010 since the product's release in
mid-2010. Despite a long history of stellar growth, consumer licensing
of Office dropped 8 percent last year but businesses helped drive Office
revenues up 27 percent during the company's 2011 fiscal year.
3. Exchange While a growing number of customers are offloading
their e-mail systems to the cloud, only a small sliver of large
enterprises are making the wholesale shift. Exchange remains the most
widely adopted enterprise e-mail platform.
4. SharePoint While it has its share of detractors, SharePoint
is a billion-plus-dollar business for Microsoft because it lets
enterprises share information generated from Office and other sources.
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5. SQL Server The database is a key pillar of the Microsoft
Server & Tools Business. SQL Server revenues increased 20 percent in
fiscal year 2011. On tap for this year is SQL Server 2012, code-named
"Denali," which will push the envelope in terms of support for business
intelligence features and support for big data.
6. Windows Server As long as Microsoft is selling lots of SQL
Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint and Dynamics, customers need Windows
Server. Besides that, of course, Windows Server provides enterprises
with their core authentication services through Active Directory and
virtualization via Hyper-V, as well as providing the infrastructure for
products such as IIS and Windows Storage Server.
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7. Visual Studio The latest release, Visual Studio 2010, has
enabled thousands of developers to target Microsoft's latest platforms,
including Windows 7, Windows Azure, and Windows Phone 7, as well as the
forthcoming Windows 8. "Visual Studio 11" is now in the works.
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8. Xbox At last count, Microsoft reported 35 million members
of its Xbox Live community. In fiscal year 2011, Microsoft sold 13.7
million Xbox consoles, compared with 10.3 million in 2010. Revenues for
the company's Entertainment and Devices Division hit $2.7 billion, a 48
percent year-over-year increase.
9. Bing It will be a long time, if ever, before Microsoft's
search engine can unseat Google as the default search engine of choice.
But thanks to Microsoft's partnership with Yahoo!, Bing has grabbed a 14
percent share of the search market, up 31 percent over FY 2010. Still,
Bing and the rest of Microsoft's advertising and online business
continue to lose money to the tune of $2.5 billion, based on revenues of
the same amount.
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10. Dynamics Microsoft's portfolio of ERP and CRM software
and services is believed to generate more than $1 billion in revenue.
While Microsoft is in the process of updating the entire portfolio with
cloud and social networking features, the company faces a barrage of
rivals in this cutthroat market.
11. System Center Believe it or not, the Microsoft System
Center product line also brings in more than $1 billion in annual
revenue. Used to manage both hardware and software running in enterprise
datacenters, Microsoft just gave the management suite a major refresh.
Due out in the first half of this year is System Center 2012, which will
add new capabilities to operations and applications management.
12. Skype The newest addition to the Microsoft portfolio,
Skype grossed $860 million in 2010, according to its IPO filing, before
the company was snapped up. Between the unified communications business
of Lync and Skype, Microsoft says it intends to increase the
availability of real-time voice and video communications to consumers
and enterprises.
13. Windows Azure This is the only product line on the list
that probably isn't even close to generating a billion dollars in
revenue. Nevertheless, the Windows Azure platform is clearly an
important product line as Microsoft customers and partners transition
their systems and apps to the cloud. Its success or failure will have
huge implications for Microsoft.
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