Microsoft reported on Thursday that consumer demand for Windows 7 helped give it a 60% increase in profit during the last quarter. Another Seattle-based tech giant, Amazon, posted a blowout quarter, growing its share of US retail in the holiday quarter. Net income jumped 71%, driven by a 42% increase in sales that stretched across media and electronics. Microsoft's revenues rose 14%.
“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.”
Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 launched globally on October 22, 2009. Through the fiscal second quarter, Microsoft has sold over 60 million Windows 7 licenses making it the fastest selling operating system in history.
“This is a record quarter for Windows units,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. “We are thrilled by the consumer reception to Windows 7 and by business enthusiasm to adopt Windows 7.”
A day after Apple launched its iPad rival to Amazon's Kindle e-reader, Amazon reported net income for the period ended Dec. 31st rose to $384 million, or 85 cents a share, from $225 million, or 52 cents, a year ago. Revenue rose to $9.52 billion from $6.70 billion.
The Wall Street Journal reports that while Amazon hasn't released sales data for its Kindle business, it will likely contribute $980 million in revenue and $250 million in gross profit in 2010, estimates Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst at brokers Collins Stewart. Among more than 40 e-reading devices that rival the Kindle, "Apple is so far the most compelling, competitive threat," said Aggarwal.
"Millions of people now own Kindles," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com."And Kindle owners read, a lot. When we have both editions, we sell 6 Kindle books for every 10 physical books. This is year-to-date and includes only paid books -- free Kindle books would make the number even higher. It's been an exciting 27 months."
Microsoft's results
Amazon results
