Microsoft reports strong Q2 earnings

Strong enterprise sales helped push Microsoft's quarterly earnings

Microsoft has posted its best ever second-quarter earnings, logging net income of $4.52bn (£2.93bn), up 48 per cent on last year.

The company credited the jump in part to the launch of Office 2010 and strong sales of Windows 7.

"We saw strong sales execution across all of our businesses, particularly in the enterprise with Windows 7 and Office 2010," said Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner.

"Our transition to cloud services is well underway with offerings like Windows Azure and our Business Productivity Online Services, and we look forward to continuing our product momentum this fall with the upcoming launches of Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Kinect."

Matt Rosoff, lead analyst at Directions On Microsoft, suggested that the growth is due to increased spending by enterprise IT customers, a trend that has been noticed across the entire technology industry.

Rosoff added that that the report is a sign that Microsoft is ready to move past a rough financial stretch brought on by the economic downturn.

"It brings them back or slightly ahead to where they were at the end of their 2008 fiscal year," he said. "It seems like they are back on the growth trajectory they were on before the downturn."