MSFT Today 2019–02–06 : Microsoft Earnings, Xbox Game Studio, Azure for Free, and More
Welcome to another episode of the Microsoft Today Podcast. Today’s episode is covering a flurry of Microsoft news and announcements, including: Microsoft’s Quarterly Earnings, Skype, AI, A Microsoft Education Acquisition, Keeping Kids Safe, A Programming Contest, Azure, A Plethora of Xbox News And More.
Microsoft’s $32 Billion Q2 Earnings were Inspired and Powered by Partners
Microsoft’s Revenue Highlights
- Microsoft’s gaming revenue was up 8% year over year during the second quarter, with revenue from Xbox software and services rising 31% over that same period.
- Surface “had its biggest quarter ever this holiday, delivering strong double-digit growth in both consumer and commercial” according to CEO Satya Nadella
- Microsoft Cloud growth exploded as commercial cloud revenue was up 48% year over year, anchored by Azure revenue growth of 76%.
Microsoft’s Earnings by the Numbers
- Earnings of $1.08 a share
- Revenues of $32.5 billion
- Intelligent-cloud revenue of $9.38 billion
$32 billion in revenue. That’s an incredible number that Satya Nadella and Amy Hood shared during the Q2 earnings call last week. Just as impressive is the commercial cloud revenue increase of 48 percent year-over-year to $9 billion. Did you know that 95 percent of Microsoft’s commercial revenue flows directly through our partner ecosystem? With more than 7,500 partners joining that ecosystem every month, partner growth and partner innovation are directly fueling our commercial cloud growth. One accelerant, the IP co-sell program, now has thousands of co-sell ready partners that generated an incredible $8 billion in contracted partner revenue since the program began in July 2017.
Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. And we know that partners make more possible. As a customer-first, partner-led company, we start with the needs of our customers and work with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for each organization. We look forward to continued evolution in the Microsoft-partner relationship this year — with more innovation in AI, more co-selling opportunities, and more ways to connect partners to customers and to other partners through Azure Marketplace and AppSource. I invite you to learn more about how Microsoft leaders from the Azure, Dynamics, and ISV teams are supporting our partners, and how partners can capitalize on the opportunities ahead.
Introducing Background Blur in Skype
Background blur in Skype is similar to background blur in Microsoft Teams. It takes the stress out of turning on your video and puts the focus where it belongs — on you! With a simple toggle, right-click, or even through your Skype settings, your background will be instantly and subtly blurred, leaving just you as the only focal point.
Building AI on trust: A dialogue around Microsoft’s core values and principles
Çağlayan Arkan sits down with Nick Tsilas, senior attorney for Manufacturing & Growth Industries, to discuss the potential of AI to help Microsoft build a better, more responsible, more sustainable world.
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- Microsoft Research Webinar: Machine Learning and Fairness with Jenn Wortman Vaughan and Hanna Wallach
- Exploring ethics and trust in AI with Microsoft
AI Design Principles
- Fairness
- Inclusive
- Reliability
- Transparency
- Privacy and Security
- Accountability
Guidelines for human-AI interaction design
The variability of current AI designs as well as high-profile reports of failures — ranging from the humorous, embarrassing or disruptive (for example, benign autocorrect errors) to the more serious, when users cannot effectively understand or control an AI system, (for example, accidents in semi-autonomous vehicles) — highlight opportunities for creating more intuitive and effective user experiences with AI. The ongoing conversation on human-centered design for AI systems shows that designers are hungry for trustworthy AI-centric design heuristics or guidelines.
DataSense for Microsoft Education’s Family of Products
One of Microsoft’s oldest and biggest verticals for its Azure cloud business has been education, and today it announced an acquisition that it hopes will help it deepen its reach: it has acquired DataSense — a data management platform that can be used to collect, integrate and report information from across a range of online education applications and services — from an educational technology company called BrightBytes, to integrate the functionality into Azure.
DataSense is a master platform that’s used by schools and educational authorities both to ingest information as well as report it to state and other authorities, covering disparate applications and other data sources. Even before being acquired by Microsoft, it already had a lot of reach, currently being used to manage data for millions of students in the U.S., BrightBytes says. The Microsoft acquisition should supercharge its growth.
Keeping Kids Safe in a Digital World With Windows 10 and Xbox Family Settings
Take advantage of free, built-in features in the devices you use. Go to account.microsoft.com and set up a Microsoft account to take advantage of all the great family settings across Windows, Xbox, Microsoft Launcher for Android, and the web. Family settings are a free set of features that span devices and can help you set guardrails that work for your family — manage screen time, set permissions for games or apps purchases, enable safe browsing on the web, and more.
Have an open dialog with your children about expectations and appropriate digital behavior. While there are tons of tools and apps available to track your child’s behavior or monitor their every move, there is a lot to be said for using digital time as a learning opportunity.
Set a good example. Just like our kids wanted to cook or vacuum like us when they were small, they are still looking to us as their example as they get older. The best way to teach our kids about responsible digital habits and online safety is to demonstrate good behaviors ourselves.
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- Visit microsoft.com/family for more information and tips
- Microsoft Launcher for Android
Applied F# Challenge
The Applied F# Challenge is a new initiative to encourage in-depth educational submissions to reveal more of the interesting, unique, and advanced applications of F#.
Azure Data Studio — Setting up your environment
Azure Data Studio is a cross-platform database tool for data professionals using the Microsoft family of on-premises and cloud data platforms on Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
Previously released under the preview name SQL Operations Studio, Azure Data Studio offers a modern editor experience with Intellisense, code snippets, source control integration, and an integrated terminal. It is engineered with the data platform user in mind, with built in charting of query result sets and customizable dashboards.
Microsoft Azure
Sign up for 12 months of popular free services and a $200 credit to explore any Azure service for 30 days, or work with the 25+ services that are always free. With your free account, you can also test and deploy enterprise apps, create custom mobile experiences, and gain insights from your data.
Introducing Xbox Game Studios
Microsoft has rebranded Microsoft Studios to Xbox Game Studios, saying that Xbox has gone beyond a console and is now a full gaming platform. Xbox Game Studios is made up of 13 distinct game development teams responsible for beloved franchises like Age of Empires, Forza, Gears of War, Halo and Minecraft. The teams at 343 Industries, The Coalition, Compulsion Games, The Initiative, inXile Entertainment, Minecraft, Ninja Theory, Obsidian Entertainment, Playground Games, Rare, Turn 10 Studios, Undead Labs and our Global Publishing group are working hard to deliver incredible exclusives, original IP and all-new chapters from your favorite franchises.
Xbox Live is about to get MUCH bigger. Xbox Live is expanding from 400M gaming devices and a reach to over 68M active players to over 2B devices with the release of our new cross-platform XDK. (Spotted by Windows Central)
Become A Hero At Halo: Outpost Discovery
Halo: Outpost Discovery is a touring fan experience for all ages, that brings the Halo video game universe to life like never before. This weekend-long event lets you step into Halo’s vast and epic world, with enthralling themed attractions, interactive in-universe encounters, the latest playable game releases and so much more. Experience details, ticket information and more are available right now at HaloOutpostDiscovery.com.
- Brad Groux will be representing Microsoft Today at the Houston Halo Outpost Discover on Saturday August 17th
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Crackdown for Xbox is Now Free
To celebrate the launch of Crackdown 3, Microsoft is giving away the original Crackdown for free! Play it on your Xbox One with Backward Compatibility.
The Crackdown 3 Technical Stress Test is coming this week on Xbox One and PC!
The Wrecking Zone Technical Test will begin Thursday, February 7, with installation beginning at 9 a.m. PST/5 p.m. UTC and the first playtests beginning at 12 p.m. PST/8 p.m. UTC, where you will get to play Crackdown 3’s groundbreaking PvP multiplayer mode, Wrecking Zone.
Astroneer Graduates From Xbox Game Preview Today
Astroneer is a space sandbox exploration game where players and friends land in a solar system with the task of surviving in the uncharted frontiers of space. On this adventure, players can work together to build custom bases above or below ground, create vehicles to explore a vast solar system, and use terrain to create anything they can imagine. A player’s creativity and ingenuity are the key to thriving on exciting planetary adventures!
Microsoft Today Website
The Microsoft Today website at msft.today is your one-stop shop for all official Microsoft news and announcements. We’ve curated and compiled the most extensive collection of sources to help you stay up to date all from a single pane of glass. We’re adding new sources every day, and have nearly 900 articles and counting.
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