Who would have guessed! For four years Microsoft has been saying that Windows 10 is a cornerstone product, the very foundation of its ambitions. But the company no longer describes the OS as such.
In its yearly K-10 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, of course.
And while this does raise some questions about how the Redmond based technology giant sees the future of its operating platform, a case can be made that that these were just words that honored the operating system, and nothing more.
Anyway, this omission was first reported when Microsoft Word was used to compare the two filings, for this year and the last. A nice little detail, this, eh?
This is what the software titan said in its filing back in 2018:
“Windows 10 is the cornerstone of our ambition, providing a foundation for the secure, modern workplace, and designed to foster innovation through rich and consistent experiences across the range of existing devices and entirely new device categories.”
And this is what the latest filing reads:
“We are bringing Office, Windows, and devices together for an enhanced and more cohesive customer experience.”
The document appeared on the SEC website this Thursday, omitting not only the word “cornerstone”, but quite a bit more alongside it. Makes for substantial change, compared to how Microsoft used to phrase things in the past.
That is not to say that Windows 10 was completely ignored. Microsoft reveals that the OS continues to gain traction in the enterprise, and empowers people with AI-first interface. In addition, it also plays a critical role in fueling the company’s cloud business and Microsoft 365 strategy.
So, it’s not like Windows is no longer an integral part of whatever Microsoft plans for the future.
Not when Windows revenue rose by 4% over the year-before period in fiscal year 2019 for Microsoft, which ended June 30. And while this climb is down from the 5% registered over the year 2017, this growth was ultimate dwarfed by other business segments.
Server products and cloud services revenue, for example, saw an uptick of 25% in 2019.
And that is without mentioning the 91% leap that Azure alone registered in this time span.
Take all that into consideration, and the removal of a word like “cornerstone” starts making sense on some level. It is a powerful word by definition, and looked a little out of place here.
