Record results from Microsoft

Ovum principal analyst Richard Edwards

AUSTRALIA: "It's the ‘quantity of motion’ that defines momentum, and even though some parts of the Microsoft machine may be slowing, others are picking up the pace nicely.

“Like its archrival Apple, Microsoft appears to be making plenty of money from the sale of consumer entertainment and tech devices, resulting in a 45 per cent revenue increase for the company's entertainment and devices division over the year. However, there was no mention of Windows Phone 7 in the Microsoft earnings press release, and so one doubts if Microsoft will ever catch iPhone and Android in the mobile phone market.

“Microsoft Office and server products got a mention in the earnings headline, and the company also stated that it had sold over 400 million Windows 7 licences. As a comparison, an estimated 30 million iPads have been sold to date. This is good news for the Microsoft business partner ecosystem, as it signifies there is still plenty of opportunity for the provision of services and solutions in the desktop market.

“With technical support for Windows XP due to end in less than a thousand days, conscientious businesses and institutions will soon have to make their move and upgrade to Windows 7, or Windows 8 if it's any good when it ships some time in 2012, and so this should give Microsoft and its service partners an added boost in the months ahead.

“Microsoft has exceeded analyst expectations and looks to have gained some momentum over the last 12 months: Steve Ballmer will be hoping this impetus can be sustained as the company places big bets on cloud, mobile, and of course Windows.”