Microsoft reports 7.3-% rise in sales in July-Sep quarter

The world's largest software maker, Microsoft Corp, posted a six per cent rise in net income to $5.74 billion for the July-September quarter, while sales expanded 7.3 per cent to a record $17.4 billion.

''We saw customer demand across the breadth of our products, resulting in record first-quarter revenues,'' declared Peter Klein, chief financial officer, Microsoft. ''Our product portfolio is performing well, and we have got an impressive pipeline of products and services that positions us well for future growth.''

Sales of business software including Office applications were up by eight per cent to $5.62 billion. ''Despite the best efforts of competitors, Office remains the overwhelming choice for productivity,'' said Klein. ''We are extremely pleased with the reception for Office 2010 this far into the launch cycle. We're 15 months post launch, but we still saw an improvement in the consumer PC attach rate for Office in the quarter.''

The server and tool products unit reported a 10 per cent rise in revenues to $4.25 billion, but revenues from Windows sales rose by a mere two per cent to $4.87 billion. Sales of Windows, on which 90 per cent of the world's PCs still operate, are dependent on PC sales, which have slowed down worldwide.

''We expect that dynamic of business PCs growing faster to last throughout this fiscal year at least,'' said Klein.

Interestingly, there were signs that its money-losing online services unit, including the MSN internet portal and Bing search engine, may have turned a corner. The division saw the lowest loss in the previous seven quarters, down at $494 million.