Microsoft delivers another strong quarter as Vista accelerates

Microsoft`s Q2 results saw revenue jump 30% to $16.4bn, while operating income was up grown 87% to $6.48bn. The results were positively affected by a revenue deferral of $1.64bn, without which the growth figures for revenue and operating income would have been 15% and 27%.

David Mitchell, SVP IT Research at Ovum. commented: “The growth of both Windows Vista and Office 2007 illustrates a very important point. Microsoft has focused on making products more attractive and useable for the end user. This has generated continued loyalty and has driven demand. Competitors wanting to make inroads into the Microsoft customer base will need to move beyond functionality and TCO debates, building a greater understanding of the emotional glue that keeps many users loyal. Usability is the key. Equally, if Microsoft wants to make inroads into competing products and the open source community then it will need to understand why those products generate the loyalty that they evidently do.”

21/01/08