Surface pulls in over one billion in revenue for Microsoft as sales increase by 24%

Microsoft is releasing their Q2 Fiscal Year 2015 results, and the numbers are quite good, despite some ominous decreases in revenue (due to sales or acquisitions).

The Surface line has officially crossed the billion dollar mark for revenue demonstrating a 24% growth from the previous quarter. In other words, the big holiday season looks to have been successful in pushing theSurface Pro 3, which drove the growth, into more hands than ever.

The Surface line of tablets that can replace a PC has been criticized since its inception as being a money-losing venture. However, Microsoft looks to be finally making some headway with the Surface Pro 3, which has been well received by critics and increasingly consumers.

The increase in revenue to $1.1 billion in an increase from last quarter's $908 million. Although the increase is not massive, it does show that the Surface still has some legs.

Now that Microsoft is pulling in over a billion in revenue (not profit, mind you), it may be harder for the voices to proclaim that the Surface is a failure. Alternatively, had Microsoft seen stable sales or even a decrease, the story would be very different.

Image & News Courtesy : Windows Central

Microsoft reports FY15 Q2 results, generated $26.5 billion in revenue

Microsoft has reported its earnings for its second fiscal quarter of 2015 ending on December 31. Overall, the company brought in a total of $26.5 billion in revenue. That's compared to $24.5 billion in revenue from the same period a year ago.

Windows Phone rev is down but Lumia sales top 10 million for the holiday

Microsoft's FY2015 numbers for Q2 are just going up, and the numbers for Windows Phones are a bit complicated.

Revenue itself for Windows Phone is down a massive 61% from the last quarter. However, before we declare everything a failure for Microsoft, they explain away that number from the loss of $650 million from Nokia. The agreement had Nokia paying Microsoft per quarter, but that venture has since terminated. In other words, since Microsoft took over the Nokia mobile division, it can no longer collect that lump sum of money since they are now their own customer.

Interestingly, Lumia phone sales are up, both for year-over-year and sequentially from last quarter.

Microsoft sold 10.5 million Lumias driven "primarily by sales of affordable smartphones". By comparison, Microsoft sold 9.3 million Lumias last quarter, gaining 1.2 million more in sales over the holiday season.

Microsoft's numbers are not impressive when compared to Google or Apple. However considering the gap between Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, and the lack of a new flagship Lumia this holiday these numbers suggest that Windows Phone is not yet entirely dead. Indeed, Q2 FY 2015 could be understood as one of the worst case scenarios for Microsoft and yet they managed to forge ahead.

Assuming Microsoft can hold onto to these numbers until the release of Windows 10 and new flagship hardware, Windows Phone is still in the race.

Image & News Courtesy Windows Central

8-inch and larger Windows 10 tablets only will have the desktop [updated]

Update: Belfiore took to Twitter once again to clarify that existing 7-inch devices will still be able to keep the desktop and take advantage of Continuum (thanks to everyone who tipped us on this).

Even after the recent Windows 10 event and the quantity of new information we received, there are still questions to be asked. Microsoft's Joe Belfiore has clarified in a Twitter conversation which devices will see the desktop with Windows 10.

"@marypcbuk @jackschofield @ExNokian @sbisson @dinabass 8" & up = "desktop" w/ win32 apps. < 8" = phones, phablets, sm tablets. No dsktp."

A little clarity, certainly. So it looks like there will be plenty of tablets able to act as a mini-desktop machine. While we weren't exactly expecting phones to have it, it clears up this particular question concerning the 7-inch tablet form factor.

Image & News Courtesy Windows Central

Here's how to enable the Spartan Edge rendering engine for IE11 in Windows 10

When it comes to web browsers, Windows 10 gets a little complicated. Internet Explorer 11 is the default browser for now, but later Spartan takes over as it has the new Edge rendering engine (but it can fall back to IE11 for legacy sites).

The Preview 9926 build has Internet Explorer 11 for the browser, however it does have some bits of the new Spartan one coming later this year. Specifically, you can enable the new rendering engine in 

IE11, the same one that is found in Spartan.

Enable Experimental Web Platform Features

1. Open IE11
2. Type about:flags in the address bar
3. Set 'Experimental Web Platform Features' to enabled
4. Restart browser

According to AnandTech, who outlined how to enable this feature, a small number of testers already have this enabled by default. For the rest of you, you can force it to work all the time. However, keep in mind this is literally why it says experimental. As such, you are getting the new rendering engine (that can be fast) but you may also experience some other performance issues.

If you want to live on the edge, try enabling this feature to see the performance difference. Worse comes to worse you can set it back to Automatic or even Disabled, in which case you just use the old IE11 rendering engine.

Additionally, you can also enable the 'Set Custom User-Agent String' function, which may also help circumvent old IE-only content.

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Spartan browser looks to crush old Internet Explorer 11 in benchmarks

Windows 10 is shaping up to be a big OS shift for many reasons, including the addition of a new web browser codenamed Spartan. Spartan is still very experimental and as such, it is not included in the current Preview for Windows 10. However, bits of the rendering engine can be engaged in the older Internet Explorer 11.

AnandTech forced the new Edge document mode in IE11 through a simple trick using about:flags. They then compared the new rendering engine to legacy IE11, Chrome 40, and Firefox 35. The results are very impressive so far, demonstrating that even in these early stages, what powers Spartan could be quite powerful.

AnandTech says the following about the changes so far:

"The performance increase of the new Javascript engine is massive, and brings Internet Explorer basically up to par with Google Chome for Javascript performance… IE was well optimized for Sunspider already, so there is not much of a change there. Google Octane 2.0 however has always been terrible in IE, and now it comes in roughly the same as Chrome, for a massive 81.8% increase over the old rendering engine. Kraken continues this with a 45% jump in performance. It is a big change, and a welcome one too."

There are still many months before we see Spartan under ideal conditions and a more finalized form, but so far, Microsoft appears to be nailing a lot of the performance issues. Even better, since Spartan is a Universal app, it gets updates through the Store instead of OS refreshes. This change means Microsoft can dynamically update and tweak the browser at a much faster clip than in the past.

Head to AnandTech to read the full write-up including more technical details about Spartan!

Image & News Courtesy Windows Central

Internet Explorer Edge? Possible names for Spartan browser reportedly being considered

The Spartan browser, or more accurately understood as 'Project Spartan' is a next-generation web browser for Windows 10. Its main features include being a Store app for dynamic updates, using the older IE11 rendering engine for legacy websites, Cortana integration, and the ability to annotate right on the web page for document sharing.

However, Spartan is not the final name, just the internal codename that Microsoft is currently using for the project. The question is, what will Microsoft call the browser upon its final release? A new report suggests a few names are being kicked around and we have the list.

The information comes from a person who participated in an online survey from a company acting on behalf of Microsoft. Although 'Spartan' was not named specifically, it was referred to in the description including "Writing on webpages", "A built-in digital assistant" and the fact that it is a browser from Microsoft launching later this year. No doubt that the survey is referring to Project Spartan.

Potential names for Spartan browser being surveyed

• Entourage
• Elixa
• Evo
• Evex
• Endeavor
• Edge

Some of the names surveyed all have a common feature as they begin with the letter 'e'.

Edge makes sense since it is the name of the new rendering engine found in Spartan. Even more interestingly, Microsoft is considering pairing each of the suggested names with:

• Microsoft
• IE
• Internet Explorer

This list would create possible combinations such as 'IE Evex' or 'Microsoft Elixa' or 'Internet Explorer Edge'. Those possible combinations are interesting because, if accurate, it demonstrates that Microsoft is considering dropping IE or Internet Explorer from the new name. That is something that has been brought up before due the heavy baggage associated with the browser.

Of course, we do not know if these are the only names that Microsoft is considering, but it is worth pondering.

From the above selection, does any combination jump out as a suitable name for Spartan?

News & Image Courtesy Windows Central