Microsoft's Mobile Performance Gets Murkier
Despite plenty of hype and PR success, Microsoft’s financial success in the mobile phone market has never been clear because of the way the company reported its financial results, lumping the business in with its embedded Windows unit, which makes the scaled-back version of Windows used in all sorts of electronic devices. Now, Microsoft says it will further change its financial reporting structure, combining the mobile and embedded devices unit with its home and entertainment unit, the business responsible for the Xbox, among other things. The company says the new reporting structure is more in line with its management structure, but one of the effects of the shift is that it further obfuscates the fiscal results of its money-losing mobile group — reinforcing doubts about its performance.
