How Microsoft Is Bringing Machine Learning To The Masses - ARC

Microsoft is in an extraordinary situation right now. Unlike most of its competitors, Microsoft's business is incredibly diversified as Redmond transitions from its heyday of the PC era into the mobile first, cloud first paradigm. Microsoft's flexibility allows it to not be wed to any single revenue master in the same way that Apple (the iPhone) and Google (advertising) are with their primary income drivers. Microsoft has three primary business units--devices, cloud and productivity--that are all growing and all tied together like the most expensive Venn diagram of all time. About half of all of Microsoft's business in the last quarter ( 12.7 billion) was from its "More Personal Computing" reporting group which includes Windows, Bing and its own hardware like the Surface tablets and Xbox. Microsoft's Office-based "Productivity And Business" segment made 6.6 billion in revenue while its "Intelligent Cloud" made 6.34 billion.