Microsoft Throwing Gobs of Cash at Online Live Services

LiveSide reads the tea leaves from Microsoft's most recent Earnings Report. What might look like bad news, a posting of a big loss, actually bodes well for the future:

According to the report, the Online Services Group, which includes Windows Live, lost 732 million dollars this year, way up from the 74 million that they lost the previous year.  Now, what could they have spent 658 million extra dollars on this year.  Luckily for us, they let us in on that too.  The report sites, "increased data center costs in our Online Services Business," as the reason for the extra losses.

LiveSide notes that Microsoft has talked about building massive data centers in the past. All this spending could mean that we can expect even more beefed up Windows Live services, including online apps, in the near future. They call it Windows Live Core, we call it a good opportunity for the mobile space. A good opportunity, that is, if people can figure out just exactly what "Windows Live" means in the first place.