Tech giant Microsoft (MSFT) has had a problem with updates lately. Some of the updates have been visibly seen to do more harm than good, bricking systems and leaving them useless. But Microsoft offered a new option, one that would have been unthinkable even a few months ago: the ability to pause updates. This ability left investors unsettled, and Microsoft shares dropped fractionally in Monday afternoon’s trading.
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“These improvements are the direct result of your feedback,” Microsoft said, almost proudly, and seemingly oblivious of the fact that the feedback came about as the result of updates that ended up killing some systems. The response, reports note, was more about addressing issues of timing in updates as opposed to issuing updates that were themselves full of bugs.
Still, the update pause will be a welcome one, in some respects. Now, the system will no longer force an update that might actually cripple a system. The update will now be able to wait until it is clear that it is safe for your system, a point that used to be a given. Updates can theoretically be paused forever, but this is not necessarily a smart move due to the bug fixes and the like that still come out in updates.
Steam Controllers Emerge
Thanks to the ongoing chip shortage, called the RAMpocalypse in some quarters, Microsoft has won a bit of reprieve from a system that might be its biggest competitor in some time: the Steam Machine. Rather, the revived Steam Machine, as this is Valve’s latest attempt at it. The device has not yet released, but the controller for it has leaked, and is drawing some notable conclusions.
Reports suggest the Steam Controller could be released next week, as unveiled by a review that was quickly taken down. A dual-trackpad design means that the controller is somewhat beefier than others in the field, and other reports suggest that the controller will carry a $99 price tag by itself. None of this has been confirmed by Valve, however, so take the report with the appropriate grain of salt.
Is Microsoft a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 33 Buys and two Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After an 8.55% rally in its share price over the past year, the average MSFT price target of $570.30 per share implies 34.28% upside potential.
