Tag: subscription

Office 365 beats traditional software licence

Posted on July 24, 2017 by - News

Microsoft campusSoftware king of the earth and the rings of Uranus, Microsoft, has seen commercial revenue from Office 365 beating the revenue generated by its traditional licensing software for the first time.

Releasing its figure for the three months ending 30 June, Vole said overall revenue was up 13 percent year on year to $23.3 billion.

Microsoft revealed that revenue from Office 365 had overtaken revenue from its traditional licensing business.

Microsoft does not release exact revenue figures for Azure, instead grouping it with Dynamics 365 and Office 365, but said Azure revenue for the quarter was up 97 percent year on year.

CEO Satya Nadella said that Microsoft’s world-view of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge was resonating with businesses everywhere.

“Every customer I talk to is looking for innovative technology to drive new growth, as well as a strategic partner who can help build their own digital capability. Microsoft is that trusted partner.”

The importance of Microsoft’s cloud business was highlighted further by a decline in product sales, down 1.5 percent to $13.8 billion. Surface revenue fell two percent, after falling 26 percent in the previous quarter.

Nick McQuire, vice president of enterprise research at CCS Insight, said that Azure will become the market-leading enterprise cloud platform.

“Azure is on track to become the dominant enterprise cloud platform in the industry over the next several years,” he said.

“Few have the reinforcing breadth of a portfolio as vast as Microsoft’s which has been combining over the past few quarters to improve its gross margins. This bodes ominously for rivals such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and IBM which are desperately trying to buck the trend towards commoditisation and falling prices in cloud services.

“While successes in Azure, Office and Dynamics 365, LinkedIn as well as improvements to Surface are positive signs for 2017, the firm is not losing sight of future breakthrough technologies such as artificial intelligence and edge computing. Both are beginning to play an increasingly central role in its positioning for the future.”

 

Adobe’s cloudy subscription flowers

Posted on December 11, 2015 by - News

Cloud computing - photo Mike MageeAdobe’s cloud-based subscription model is doing wonders for its bottom line.

The outfit reported a profit that topped market expectations for the ninth straight quarter on strong subscriber growth for its Creative Cloud package of software tools, which includes Photoshop.

More than 833,000 subscribers signed up for Creative Cloud in the fourth quarter ended Nov. 27, more than the 678,200 additions analysts were expecting.

Creative Cloud includes graphic design tool Photoshop, web design software Dreamweaver and web video building application Flash, among other software.

Adobe, which has seen strong growth from Creative Cloud, has been nimble enough to attract users other than enterprises and professionals to the software suite.

More than half of its customers subscribe to the highest-priced full Creative Cloud while the rest subscribe to individual products. Photoshop Lightroom was the fastest growing.

Apparently this is because it is attracting new users from hobbyists and consumers and people that would never buy the Creative products before.

San Jose-based Adobe has been switching to web-based subscriptions from traditional licensed software to enjoy a more predictable recurring revenue stream.

Revenue from its digital media business, which houses Creative Cloud, jumped 35 percent to $875.3 million.

Revenue from its digital marketing business, which offers tools for businesses to analyze customer interactions and manage social media content, rose 2.3 percent to $382.7 million.

Total revenue rose to $1.31 billion.

Despite the 21.7 percent increase in fourth-quarter revenue only matching analysts’ estimates, a much lower 3.4 percent bump in total operating costs also helped Adobe’s profit beat estimates.

Adobe’s net income soared to $222.7 million, or 44 cents per share, in the quarter, from $88.1 million, or 17 cents per share, a year earlier.

 

Autodesk slumps thanks to cloudy subscription model

Posted on August 28, 2015 by - News

grandpa_simpson_yelling_at_cloudThe software subscription model is taking a beating after the maker of computer-aided design (CAD) software, Autodesk cut its full-year profit and revenue forecast for the second time this year, sending its shares down seven percent.

Autodesk also reported lower than expected quarterly revenue as its licensing revenue declined because of the company’s shift to a cloud based subscription model.

The company said it expects revenue of $2.47 billion-$2.50 billion for the year. In May, the company forecast 2016 revenue growth of two to four percent, compared with fiscal 2015, implying revenue of $2.56 billion to $2.61 billion.

Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $2.59 billion.

Chief Executive Carl Bass said during a conference call said that the company had updated its revenue outlook based on a greater than expected portion of its sales shifting from perpetual licences to new subscription types.

Subscriptions bring in less money upfront as payment is spread over the entire period of use unlike traditional packaged software, but typically ensure more predictable recurring revenue.

However, the company maintained its full-year forecast for billing growth and net subscription additions.

The company’s licensing and subscription revenue, which accounts for nearly half of its total revenue, fell 17 percent in the second quarter ending July 31, from a year earlier.

The company reported a net loss of $235.5 million, or $1.04 per share, for the second quarter, compared with a profit of $31.3 million, or 13 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenues fell 4.3 percent to $609.5 million, missing the average analyst estimate of $612.4 million.

 

Microsoft releases the hounds on subscription activators

Posted on December 9, 2014 by - News

White Puppy-02In a new move against software pirates, the software king of the world has unleashed its legal hounds on those offering subscription activating software.

Microsoft has filed a complaint at a federal court in Washington accusing a person behind an AT&T subscription of activating various pirated copies of Windows 7 and Office 10. The account was identified by Microsoft’s in-house cyberforensics team based on suspicious “activation patterns.”

Microsoft doesn’t have a long track record of cracking down on individual pirates so this move is new.

Microsoft filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against a person who activated pirated copies of Windows 7 and Office 10 from an AT&T Internet connection.

“Microsoft’s cyberforensics have identified a number of product key activations originating from IP address 76.245.7.147, which is presently assigned to ISP AT&T Internet Services..,” the complaint reads.

“These activations have characteristics that on information and belief, establish that Defendants are using the IP address to activate pirated software.”

While many think unauthorised copies are hard for Microsoft to detect, the company explains that its cybercrime team claims to use state-of-the-art technology to detect software piracy. It looks for activation patterns and characteristics which make it likely that certain IP-addresses are engaged in unauthorised copying.

In this situation, the defendant activated numerous copies of Windows 7 and Office 2010 with suspicious keys, which were nicked from Microsoft’s supply chain, used without permission from the refurbisher channel, and used more often than the license permits.

So, this is not an average user, but someone who sells PCs with pirated software.