{"title": "Microsoft's 2025 Performance: Key Achievements, Challenges, and Unexpected Events", "body": ["Identifying a clear success for Microsoft in 2025 proves challenging. Throughout the year, the company experienced a blend of accomplishments, shortcomings, and puzzling incidents, as documented in various reports. To assess this, reviews of articles were conducted, opinions from peers gathered, and insights from AI tools like Copilot, Google Gemini, and ChatGPT solicited. Ultimately, Microsoft's most notable achievement was its substantial financial gains, despite widespread dissatisfaction with its strategies."], ["This outcome seems fitting for the landscape of 2025. Critics of the company will find ample material for critique, while supporters may struggle to identify substantial positives worth celebrating."], ["One of the year's most impactful missteps involved the gaming division. On October 1, Microsoft announced a significant increase in the Game Pass Ultimate subscription fee, from $19.99 to $29.99 per month, alongside a rise for the Game Pass PC tier. This followed shortly after price adjustments for Xbox consoles and accessories earlier in the year, dubbed the 'Xboxalypse' by observers."], ["The changes sparked outrage among subscribers, leading many to cancel their memberships amid vocal backlash. This reaction echoed the uproar over the 2023 reduction in Microsoft Rewards benefits, which the company eventually reversed. Despite the hikes, third-party retailers like Amazon continued offering Game Pass at the previous rate several weeks later, providing a temporary workaround for users."], ["Geopolitical tensions influenced multiple public events for Microsoft. During its 50th anniversary festivities in Seattle, demonstrators interrupted proceedings on two occasions. Employee Ibtihal Aboussad accused the company of benefiting from AI sales to the Israeli military, linking it to the conflict in Palestine. In August, similar protests at headquarters resulted in terminations for participating staff. Disruptions extended to CEO Satya Nadella's keynote at the Build conference, with pro-Palestinian activism persisting through November at various gatherings. These incidents highlighted broader questions about technology firms' ties to governments."], ["Amid this, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Nadella attended White House dinners with President Trump, signaling alignment despite his past efforts to deport even naturalized citizens like Nadella. The company had little influence over resulting policies, such as tariffs that unsettled taxpayers, businesses, and markets."], ["In 2025, the Copilot AI assistant permeated numerous Microsoft products, overwhelming many users. To recoup its heavy AI investments, the company promoted Copilot's integration across daily workflows. It now features in Office applications, the Edge browser, and the Xbox app. While some find it enhances productivity—such as in writing tasks—others remain skeptical. Documenting every instance of this push feels exhaustive, including oddities like giving Copilot a visual avatar, embedding it in vehicles via Teams, adding it to Notepad for sequential text generation, or creating autonomous agents for online shopping. Responses like 'no one requested this' capture the sentiment."], ["Such pervasive integration even prompted guides on disabling AI features in personal computers."], ["Beyond politics, 2025 exposed debates on AI's reliability and utility. Microsoft aggressively embedded Copilot in cloud-based tools, though adoption lagged. For on-device AI, the company sought to demonstrate value in PCs. The Recall feature, which captures and indexes user activity snapshots for search, aimed to address this."], ["However, Recall faced delays due to privacy concerns, initially limited to Snapdragon-equipped devices before expanding to AMD and Intel systems. By launch, public distrust had grown amid political shifts, AI skepticism, aggressive marketing, and valid privacy worries. Recommendations to disable it were common, and overall PC AI efforts underwhelmed."], ["Excluding Recall, Microsoft's top PC AI advance in 2025 was arguably semantic search, as suggested by technical fellow Steven Bathiche in an October discussion. While promising, it lacked transformative impact."], ["Updates to Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2 brought a redesigned Start menu and enhanced Phone Link connectivity, alongside minor additions like Click to Do, refined Windows Share, Widget panel adjustments, and stricter local account restrictions. These changes were mostly unremarkable."], ["Notable experiments included Copilot Vision, which assisted navigation in new software, and Gaming Copilot, though both fell short of their ambitious promises in execution."], ["ZDNet's Ed Bott captured a prevailing frustration: the Windows Insider program operates chaotically. With four release channels, there's no assurance that tested features will deploy promptly or at all, fostering uncertainty around previews and builds."], ["Recent departures of key Insider team members, combined with long-standing rumors of reduced quality assurance, raise questions about leadership and stability. Reforms seem necessary before advancing to Windows 12."], ["Microsoft avoided committing to Windows 12 in 2025, despite expectations. Indications suggest Windows 11 26H1 testing will prioritize Snapdragon X2 Elite hardware, potentially delaying Windows 12 beyond 2026."], ["The shift from AI PCs to Copilot+ PCs failed to gain traction, with early 2025 sales declining sharply. Intel confirmed demand leaned toward legacy hardware over NPU-integrated chips."], ["Factors contributing to this included weak performance of Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite laptops, which trailed competitors like AMD and Intel. Intel's reports on preferences for older processors remained vague regarding specific lines like Arrow Lake or Core Ultra series. Nonetheless, as most modern laptop CPUs include NPUs, consumers will inevitably adopt Copilot+ capabilities."], ["The Copilot+ label offered limited unique value, with features like Recall underdelivering and others like Copilot Vision extending to all PCs. A more significant development was Windows ML, which intelligently allocates AI workloads across CPU, GPU, or NPU as optimal."], ["A positive note: Microsoft's management of Windows 10's end-of-support transition softened the blow from the popular Windows 10 to the less favored Windows 11. Options included extended paid support, backup tools, and EU-mandated extensions, averting a harsher cutoff."], ["While this may merely postpone the shift, it aligns with Microsoft's AI focus via Copilot, integrated across Microsoft 365 and standalone apps, rendering the underlying OS less critical."], ["Assessing handheld gaming required input from experts Adam Patrick Murray and Michael Crider. Murray noted the hardware's strengths but criticized the Xbox interface adaptation. Crider pointed out its quick spread to competitors, eroding exclusivity, and both highlighted usability gaps compared to Xbox or SteamOS."], ["In essence, Microsoft's handheld initiative relied on third-party Asus ROG Ally X hardware, crediting Asus for the build. Additions like multi-storefront game access and shader optimizations were beneficial, though the Windows UI overhaul drew mixed reactions."], ["For the first time in over a decade, no personal review of a Surface device occurred in 2025, partly due to frustrations with pricing, particularly the Surface Pro. Supply issues arose from mid-year updates to Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11 with Intel Core Ultra 200 (Lunar Lake) chips for enterprise appeal, plus compact, fanless Snapdragon Plus variants. International teams, like those in Sweden, opted for independent testing of the smaller Pro model."], ["A 5G-enabled Surface Laptop refresh seemed peripheral, and discontinuing the Surface charger was a minor change. Overall, Surface's direction appears uncertain, favoring x86 for gaming yet prioritizing Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite for AI. With former leader Panos Panay now at Amazon and emphasis on software, the line risks stagnation. Microsoft should clarify its vision for Surface in 2026."], ["Financially, Microsoft thrived, boosting revenue through Azure and service expansions for organizations. Annual figures showed rising revenue and net income, with stock prices up from the year's start and nearly ninefold growth over the past decade compared to 2015."], ["The referenced chart was created via Anthropic's Claude AI, not Copilot, which generated a flawed quarterly graph—misstating Q4 2025 revenue at $76.4 billion and net income at $27.2 billion, far from actuals."], ["Long-time reports indicate Microsoft's consumer focus has waned in favor of enterprise clients. Publications like PCWorld emphasize end-user perspectives, while business outlets such as Computerworld explore corporate wins and losses. Enterprise cloud deals generate far greater value than addressing consumer grievances."], ["Questions persist about Microsoft's strategic path. Dissatisfaction abounds regarding plans, choices, and timelines, amid PC market strains from shortages, price increases, and tariff risks. Historically, Surface innovations guided progress; in 2025, the company appeared directionless alongside the industry."], ["Mark has contributed to PCWorld for a decade, drawing on 30 years in tech journalism. He has penned over 3,500 pieces for the outlet on topics including PC components, accessories, and Windows. His work also appears in PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science, and Electronic Buyers' News, earning a Jesse H. Neal Award for news coverage. Recently, he cleared space by donating numerous Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs."]}