[aegiso]

End-user Windows licenses haven't been a significant source of income for Microsoft for a very long time. They make their money from their enterprise ecosystem, and end-user Windows serves only to support that ecosystem.

So unfortunately, I hate to break it to you that as an end user the money you're giving Microsoft for their products never gave you control.

But on the bright side, pissing off the end users that provide sustenance and influx for their volume-licenses cash cows doesn't serve Microsoft's bottom line either. So even if you pay nothing, your usage of Microsoft's products is very much something Microsoft would prefer to continue.

[Aaronontheweb]

> End-user Windows licenses haven't been a significant source of income for Microsoft for a very long time.

If ~$20b in revenue last year isn't a big business... http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earn...

65% of that $20b comes from OEMs, which is 100% consumer.

edit: the exact quote from the earnings statement I linked:

"Excluding the impact of the Windows Upgrade Offer, OEM revenue decreased 15%, and was approximately 65% of total Windows Division revenue."

Windows Enterprise licenses are managed separately - even if Wells Fargo orders 12,000 new laptops from Dell, Windows licensing is not factored into the price; WF manages that separately through its enterprise relationship directly with Microsoft.

[tanzam75]

> 65% of that $20b comes from OEMs, which is 100% consumer.

No, OEM is not 100% consumer. It's not even half.

A large number of OEM machines are sold with Pro preloaded. These go to businesses. (Some consumers buy Pro, but some small businesses buy Home. Assume it more or less averages out.)

Last quarter, Windows OEM revenues overall decreased by just 3%, despite the fact that non-Pro OEM revenues decreased by 20%. Why? Because Pro revenues increased by 12%!

In fact, the slides even said: "Windows OEM Pro revenue up 12%, driven by higher Windows Pro mix in large enterprises and developed markets." So they explicitly acknowledge that enterprise customers are included in OEM revenue.

If you do the algebra, Pro now accounts for 61% of OEM revenues. That means that Home accounts for 39%.

$20 billion * 0.97 * 0.65 * 0.39 = $4.92 billion.

$4.92 billion in a company that took in $73.7 billion of revenues in fiscal year 2013. For comparison, Bing had revenues of $3.2 billion in fiscal year 2013.

[Aaronontheweb]

Ok, that's fair. $5b is still not a small chunk of change, even for Microsoft and even with Silicon Valley valuation arithmetic at work.

[rakoo]

OEM means the hardware manufacturer bought a licence and installed it. The end-user had no choice of OS. You can't say Microsoft had any business with end-users.