Microsoft reports increased revenue thanks to Windows, Office, and Kinect

Microsoft has reported an increase in revenue in its latest financial results for Q3, 2011. Sales of Windows 7, Office, and Kinect for Xbox 360 are all strong.

Revenue earned by the Windows division was slightly down, from $4.65 billion a year ago to $4.45 billion now. But that’s easily explained away by falling PC sales, and is fully in line with expectations. Windows 7 is still selling supremely well, with the 350 million licenses sold milestone being celebrated recently. Sales will likely drop between now and the launch of Windows 8, expected to be around fall 2012. And then the whole moneymaking process will begin again.

The Xbox 360 games console appears to finally be paying dividends for Microsoft, with Entertainment & Devices division growing 60 percent over the course of the last year. The motion-control system dubbed Kinect has aided and abetted that rise, becoming the “fastest-selling consumer electronics device in history” upon release.

Sales of Office were very strong, once again exceeding expectations by quite a margin. The Online Services division, which includes Bing, made a positive $684 million in revenues, an increase of 14 percent over the previous year. However that still resulted in a loss of $726 million.

Despite these strong financial results Apple fanboys have much to crow about in light of their release. After having already overtaken Microsoft in terms of market cap and revenue, Steve Jobs and co. have now also overtaken their biggest rivals in terms of profit. Microsoft can still boast of beating Apple in one regard. That is profit margin.

Apple has an income of $5.99 billion from revenues of $24.6 billion, whereas Microsoft made $5.23 billion from $16.43 billion. Both are impressive, but one is more impressive than the other. Grasping at straws? Yes, possibly, so I’ll conclude by stating that both Microsoft and Apple are doing incredibly well given the current economic climate. Can’t we all just get along?

• 

• Microsoft reports strong Q2 financials thanks to Kinect, Office, & Windows 7
• Windows Vista, Office 2007 boost Microsoft sales
• Microsoft posts first year-over-year revenue decline ever
• Microsoft revenue drops – Blames weak PC and server markets
• Windows 7 boosts Microsoft earnings