Author Archives: Matt Walsh

Microsoft continues to branch out of the PC world; a new Xbox is due to be released for the holidays and the new Surface Pro will ship in March.  Yet, the WSJ recently described a new product, created by Microsoft and the NYPD designed to fight crime! (NYPD, Microsoft create crime-fighting tech system).

This futuristic Person of Interest style system uses over 3,000 security cameras, license plate records, portable radiation detectors, 911 calls, and arrest records to give police real-time information of the crime scene they are running towards.  In fact, it was already successfully used last August when a gunman opened fire outside the Empire State Building.  Without the system providing data suggesting only one shooter, the police would have initially concluded there were multiple gunman, based on 911 calls, and would have approached the situation differently, which is a life or death decision.

The NYPD has been working with Microsoft since 2009 to create the system, at a cost of $30-$40 million dollars.  However, if Microsoft can identify a target market, New York City would get 30% of every sale.

What is interesting to me (besides the obvious fact of science-fiction again becoming reality), is how we will have to start comparing Microsoft’s earnings once this super-hero computer system hits the market.  Assuming analysts’ trepidation is proved foolhardy, this system could provide extremely large revenues per individual sale, whether to major cities, smaller municipalities, or even large stadiums that routinely house sporting events and concerts.  Adjusting Microsoft’s earnings with non-GAAP adjustments will become imperative to see the true impact of this system (and the new Xbox and Surface tablet) has on their bottom-line.  As time goes on, and these products become part of their normal operations, adjustments will become less necessary, but for now and the immediate future, it will be difficult ascertain Microsoft’s normal operating results with the launch of new (and unusual) products.

That and it’s just flat out cool.