Microsoft is scheduled to release its next earnings report tomorrow after closing bell, and on average, analysts are expecting earnings of 64 cents per share and $22.1 billion in revenue. One of the key issues that has plagued the company’s revenues and profits over the last several years is the declining PC market, but we may finally be seeing the shift toward mobile investors have been waiting for.
Microsoft’s net reach exceeds 90%
Ahead of tomorrow’s earnings report, Verto Analytics compiled some data on Microsoft’s user base. The firm found that 227.3 million U.S. users accessed at least one of the company’s online services at least once during March. Verto pegs Microsoft’s net reach at 91.8% in the U.S. The firm assigns a “stickiness factor” of 68% as an average of 154.4 million users access at least one of the company’s services every day.
Microsoft users spend an average of 32 hours per month using the company’s services, with the average session lasting 6.4 minutes. Although PCs are still the most popular device used to access the company’s services with 105.6 million users, mobile devices are starting to catch up. Smartphones were in second place with 85.8 million users, while 31.2 million users were on tablets. PC users also spend the most time per month at 36 hours, compared to 2 hours on smartphones and 1.7 hours on tablets. Verto Analytics Founder and CEO Dr. Hannu Verkasalo called the company’s position “interesting” and believes that the “One Microsoft” initiative may be working.
“They have quickly pushed their mobile reach with their new device agnostic strategy, and even though they still have twice as many users using Microsoft services on PCs vs. smartphones, the mobile segment is the growth area,” Dr. Verkasalo said. “Microsoft has four significant digital brands with more than 100M unique users monthly in the US. Skype is still big, with 84M unique U.S. users, and OneDrive has started to compete with other cloud storage services.”
The company has a good mix of generations among users as well, with 29% being Millennials, 26% being Generation X, 32% Baby Boomers and 13% Silents.
Microsoft Live the most popular property
Verto found Microsoft Live to be the most popular property with 177.1 million monthly users who spend an average of 4.5 hours per month on the platform across 47 sessions lasting an average of 5.7 minutes. Interestingly, Bing was in second place with 138.9 million monthly users spending an average of 5.1 hours per month on it, spread over 28 sessions lasting 11.2 minutes each, on average.
Microsoft Office came in third with 136.3 million monthly users spending an average of 10.3 hours per month, spread across 159 sessions with an average session lasting 4 minutes. Verto found MSN had 121.5 million users, while Skype had 83.7 million monthly users and OneDrive had 42.4 million monthly users.
Shares of Microsoft fell 0.6% to $56.05 in afternoon trading on Wednesday.
