World of Windows
Software giant Microsoft raked in record revenue for $19 billion, a 14 percent year-on-year increase, for the last quarter of 2009 - the first quarter since the launch of Windows 7. This translated to net income of $6.66 billion, which was a massive 60 percent increase on the same period a year ago. These results do include $1.71 billion of deferred revenue from pre-sales of Windows 7.
This is emerging as a distinct pattern this earnings season. Most companies went on a radical cost-cutting drive when the extent of the financial crisis became apparent, and all this austerity is translating to lower overheads, better margins and better profits. We also can't lose sight of the fact that Q4 2008 was an apocalyptic quarter when making year-on-year comparisons.
"Exceptional demand for Windows 7 led to the positive top-line growth for the company," said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft. "Our continuing commitment to managing costs allowed us to drive earnings performance ahead of the revenue growth." Microsoft has already sold 60 million Windows 7 licenses.
Adding to Microsoft's glee will be the underwhelmed initial response (with the exception of the devout, of course) to Apple's iPad, which had been hyped-up so much that some people were expecting it to change the world. What emerged was just another tablet, albeit running Apple's excellent UI and sporting a new SoC.
Investors don't seem to impressed either, with Apple's shares down four percent yesterday. But having said that, Microsoft's shares were flat in after-hours trading, in spite of the record results.
Microsoft Q4 summary
