Microsoft Earnings Saved By Windows 7, Its "Fastest-Selling Operating System in History"
Microsoft made a record revenue numbers last quarter, but only its Windows division did substantially better than last year. In fact, practically every other aspect of Microsoft's business did worse.
Don't get me wrong, revenue of $19 billion is extremely impressive. But other than the Server business—which was basically flat—all of the growth came from sales of Windows 7. And I'd be willing to bet that a large percentage of that growth came from netbooks. Bing must have been especially disappointing for Ballmer, with online advertising revenue actually decreasing 2% in the same time period when Google saw its revenue increase 17%.
To date, Windows 7 has sold 60 million copies, making it the fastest-selling operating system in the company's history. Of course, a large part of the reason for Windows 7's success is that so many businesses and individuals decided to pass on Vista. Microsoft's essentially been picking up two refresh cycle's worth of business here.
We'll listen in on the earnings call, and will let you know if there are any more interesting details or fun Ballmerisms ahead.
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