Monday, May 2, 2011

Microsoft profit soars despite of drop in PC sales

Microsoft officials keep talking about how its business does not rely on personal computer sales and this quarter they have proved it as Microsoft's profit rose 31% even when consumer PC sales dropped by 8%. The company's overall sales were up 13%, to $16.4 billion.

Affected by the drop in PC sales, Windows sales dropped 4%, and earnings from that division sank 10% in the quarter ended March 31.

Normally, it should lead Microsoft to trouble but Microsoft's other products helped save the day. Sales of the Xbox and the controller-less Kinect add-on were incredibly strong. Revenue in Microsoft's entertainment division rose 60% to nearly $2 billion, as it sold 2.7 million Xboxes and 2.4 million Kinects.

Not only entertainment, but the server products like Sharepoint also helped drive sales and profit, with revenue in that division rising 11%. Not only this but Office sales also kicked up to 21% with a number of businesses deploying Office 2010 at a rate five times faster than they adopted the previous version, Office 2007.

On the other hand, the bad news was that sales of netbooks fell a stunning 40% in the quarter, and Windows still hasn't deployed on enough tablets to be taken seriously as an iPad or even an Android competitor.

Online search engine Bing posted yet another hugely disappointing quarter, losing $726 million in the quarter and nearly $2 billion in nine months. Despite steady share gains in search and a partnership agreement with Yahoo, Microsoft's relative revenue is disappointing compared to its competition, and Microsoft still has yet to turn a profit in that five-year-old unit.

Overall, Microsoft's fiscal third-quarter net income rose to $5.2 billion, or 61 cents per share, for the period ended March 31.

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