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Microsoft has reported a record $70 billion revenue fueled by strong demand for the Microsoft Office and the software giant’s Xbox 360 games console.
Sales rose eight per cent to $17.37 billion largely off the back of solid demand for business software and the firm’s Xbox games business. However the firm’s flagship Windows operating system business fell one percent as worldwide PC sales have weakened.
Far from showing signs of age, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 increased 13 per cent and thanks to the Kinect game controller, Microsoft’s games division sales grew an impressive 30 per cent to $1.49 billion.
Highlighting the relative strength of consumer versus business markets, Microsoft’s Office declined 8 per cent to end-users while business demand increased 12 per cent. As expected, Microsoft’s online division responsible for the Bing search engine, continued a fun of losses but sales rose 17 per cent.
Overall Microsoft posted strong results, capitalising on consumer demand for console gaming despite a weak consumer market for PCs, while the firm’s business software and server tools divisions posted particularly strong results which helped the tech giant beat analysts’ expectations.
