14 DAY TRIAL // Redmond-based Microsoft Corp. announced on Thursday its earning results for the fiscal third quarter, yet said very little things about its Windows Mobile division, although we already know that the company has invested a lot of money into the development of the next-to-come Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Mobile 7 platforms, as well as in the services associated with them.
For what it's worth, it seems that the company's Entertainment and Devices Division announced a $31 million loss during the quarter, marking a whopping shift from the $106-million operating profit it posted during the same timeframe a year ago. According to the company, the lower revenues were, in part, attributed to layoff-related expenses.
“Research and development expenses increased $66 million or 18 percent, primarily reflecting increased headcount-related expenses associated with the Windows Mobile device platform,” is what the Microsoft report states. Basically, the unit saw a 55 percent drop in the operating profit during the last nine months.
Essentially, this means that the Redmond company has hired more people to take care of the development of Windows Mobile, which hints at the fact that it is committed to coming to the market with better iterations of the operating system, as well as to including more attractive features in them, while also focusing on the development of the services associated with the platform.
As many of you might already know, Microsoft acquired Danger for $500 million last February, and it is believed to be working on the next-generation Windows Mobile 7, which should come to the market as a much more consumer-friendly platform, compared with previous releases. In case the future iterations will, indeed, prove as user-friendly as Microsoft wants us to believe, then the company will manage to increase its market share both with Windows Mobile 7, due for next year, and with Windows Mobile 6.5, which has been recently reported to come on devices in the fourth quarter of 2009.