One of the stars of the second half for the Microsoft was the Xbox, while sales of netbooks collapsed.
Demand for PCs from companies and solid sales of Xbox offset the weak demand for PCs from individuals, so that Microsoft reported higher than expected revenue in the second quarter (April-June).
Microsoft announced a net profit of 5.9 billion dollars and revenues for the first quarter of 17.4 billion dollars. The figures are comparable to those of the same period last year, when Microsoft reported a profit of $4.5 billion and revenues of 16 billion dollars.
The Entertainment and Devices Division (gadgets) of Microsoft, led by the Xbox, had an annual growth of 30% in the second half. Other gains were reported for the server division (up 12%), business (+7%) and sales of PCs to companies (8%).
On the other hand sales of PCs to end users decreased by 2% while the sales of netbooks by 41%. The results are in line with IDC and Gartner estimates and confirms the strong impact that has had the launch of iPad 2 tablets on the market.
Revenues raised from the sale of Microsoft Windows and Windows Live were lower by 1% to 4.7 billion dollars.
As Microsoft was dethroned last year by Apple from the top of the most valuable technology companies, this year the giant founded by Bill Gates tries to gain ground by developing other divisions than traditional PC sector. Microsoft is already working on a new operating system, Windows 8, which will run on both Intel and the ARM machines. The purpose of this approach is to limit the market dominance of Apple tablets.