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As Vista disappears into the dust behind the juggernaut of leaping PC sales, it seems the swift take-up of Windows 7 by consumers has boosted Microsoft’s second-quarter profit and revenue. The No. 1 software maker’s net income rose 60 per cent to US$6.66 billion. Revenue climbed 14 per cent to $19 billion.Jill and Joe Public bought PCs like crazy as the economy recovered and all wanted the new Windows. US sales of PCs running Windows rose about 50 per cent over Christmas, the NPD Group reported.
Surging Windows sales then helped Microsoft overcome declines in its other businesses.
“We were able to generate record revenue and profit on the back of consumer demand,” said the new CFO Peter Klein. “We aren’t seeing enterprise recovery yet. The timing is uncertain. We think it will start this year.”
Microsoft, which stopped giving earnings forecasts in January 2009, didn’t provide an outlook for profit and sales.
Windows generated $6.9 billion in revenue last quarter. Many customers had skipped Vista, raising speculation that buyers will upgrade this time around.
PC shipments rose 15 per cent worldwide last quarter. US shipments jumped 24 per cent, four times the rate that IDC had projected.
The division that makes Office software and other business programs, the company’s other cash cow, saw revenue slip 3 per cent, while revenue from the server software group edged up just 2 per cent. In both cases, Microsoft blamed the ongoing lull in corporate spending.
