Microsoft's Windows Phone Revenue Tops Just $600M in 2011
Microsoft's (NAS: MSFT) Windows Phone 7 platform is not raking in big bucks for the software giant. According to a perusal of the company's annual 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the maximum amount of revenue Microsoft received in its last fiscal year from its mobile efforts was $613 million, a fraction of its total revenue of $69.9 billion.
According to the filing, Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division took in $8.716 billion in Microsoft's fiscal year 2011, which ended July 1. As the Seattle Post-Intelligener pointed out, the company's Xbox 360 platform made up the bulk of that revenue, with $81.03 billion. That leaves $613 million for revenue from Zune, Mediaroom, Surface and hardware, as well as Windows Phone.
To be fair, Windows Phone devices did not launch until October 2010, which meant that the company was still drawing revenue from its legacy Windows Mobile platform before that. Microsoft declined to comment on the report, according to Seattle P-I, and the company has not revealed how much revenue it has received from licensing Windows Phone 7, or how many Windows Phone devices have been sold to end users.
Microsoft did however spell out its strategic mobile relationship with Nokia (NYS: NOK) ; Nokia plans to release its first Windows Phone device by year-end. "Microsoft will license to Nokia and Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as Nokia's primary smartphone platform," Microsoft said in the filing. "Microsoft will receive a running royalty at a competitive rate from Nokia for the Windows Phone platform, with minimum commitments reflecting the large volumes Nokia expects to ship."
Microsoft plans to roll out the "Mango" software update to its Windows Phone platform this fall, and its handset partners will release a slate of new devices running on the updated software. Microsoft added Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE as Windows Phone Mango licensees in addition to existing partners HTC, LG and Samsung.
Research firm asymco put Microsoft's revenue from mobile into perspective. According to the firm, Apple (NAS: AAPL) took home two-thirds of the mobile industry's operating profit in the second quarter, when it shipped 20.3 million iPhones. However, unlike Microsoft, Apple gets revenue from hardware and accessory sales. Apple booked $13.3 billion in iPhone revenue in the second quarter.
This article originally published here. Get your wireless industry briefing here.
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