Microsoft has reported its quarterly earnings this week, with revenues of $16.04 billion. That’s up 22 percent year-over-year, ahead of Wall Street estimates. That also puts Microsoft around $300 million ahead of Apple, giving the company good positioning for the coming mobile wars this holiday season.
Microsoft reported a $4.52 billion quarterly profit, edging Apple out again. PC World points out that the difference can be attributed to higher profit margins around Microsoft’s software products, whereas Apple’s focus is on devices. Looking at Microsoft’s power plays throughout the year, Azure, Windows 7 and Office 10 are just some of the business-oriented products that are bringing Microsoft up to speed. From PC World,
“Our transition to cloud services is well underway with offerings like Windows Azure and our Business Productivity Online Services, and we look forward to continuing our product momentum this fall with the upcoming launches of Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Kinect,” chief operating officer Kevin Turner said in a statement.
Also worth noting is Bing’s shares growth for the 13th straight month, along with selling 175 million licenses to Windows 7. That should be encouraging for Microsoft’s overall cloud and mobile initiatives, particularly as the company looks to make a massive push around its Windows 7 mobile operating system.
Microsoft began testing the OS, shipping out to various carriers this week. The company also announced its plans to grant each employee with a device later on this year, with high expectations for the OS overall. A deal with Arm gives Microsoft a licensing deal with for chip maker’s mobile processors, reiterating Microsoft’s gravity around becoming a major contender in the mobile arms race.
With an array of launch partners confirmed, including Dell, ASUS, LG, HTC and Samsung, Microsoft will be able to make a broad marketing campaign around its mobile OS. The strategy is similar to Google’s play with Android, but then again, that was quite similar to Microsoft’s strategy with PCs.
