An year ago, when the PC industry was retreating in the face of a rampant financial tsunami, Microsoft wrote a bit of history, albeit for all the wrong reasons. It registered its maiden year-on-year revenue decline back then. But now that an economic recovery is well underway, Microsoft is riding a wave of its own – the Windows 7 wave. The company posted its third-quarter results on Thursday.
During the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2010, its earnings reached $4.01 billion after rising 35% as compared to the the previous year. Revenue also registered an increase of 6% and reached $14.50 billion. The strong showing can safely be attributed to Windows 7, which is “by far the fastest-selling operating system in history.”
“Windows 7 continues to be a growth engine, but we also saw strong growth in other areas like Bing search, Xbox LIVE and our emerging cloud services,” said Microsoft CFO Peter Klein. “Our record third-quarter revenue along with continued rigor on cost management resulted in exceptional EPS growth.”
It is important to note that Microsoft has chosen to defer $305 million of revenue from its Office productivity suite. This is due to the fact that these Office sales are covered by the ongoing Microsoft Office 2010 Technology Guarantee program.
