Sherlund: Microsoft's Surface will be licensing Windows same as other OEMS

There are lots of interesting tidbits from a note to investors that Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund just sent out, following his meeting this morning with Microsoft Corporate Vice President Mike Angiulo and Windows division Chief Financial Office Tami Reller.

Among the highlights:

• Microsoft "has stated that its own hardware group would license Windows on the same terms as other OEM partners," Sherlund says in the note.
• Microsoft will report its Surface revenues in the Windows and Windows Live division.

  ("We would like to see the hardware portion broken out separately so there is transparency between the Windows revenues and the hardware portion so we could assess the margins on the hardware side," Sherlund writes. "MSFT has not commented on whether it will be selling its hardware at a loss initially as volumes ramp as we had observed with the Xbox console business, but we would not be surprised to see this early on")

• Sherlund expects Windows 8 to be released to manufacturer in mid-to-late July, with general availability in mid-October. (That's been the consensus expectation so far, too.)
• Sherlund writes that his hands-on experience with Surface was positive.

Source: http://feeds.seattletimes.com/click.phdo?i=f482f80377251d8f6992e5e81a7a6fae

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