Windows pushes Microsoft's quarterly profit over $4bn

Microsoft profits rose 35 per cent on the back of strong Windows 7 sales

Microsoft's latest quarterly report showed profits up by 35 per cent to $4.01bn (£2.6bn), largely on the back of Windows sales.

Windows revenue rose compared with the same period last year, and Microsoft's search, cloud and gaming divisions all reported good results. Overall revenue was up by eight per cent to $14.81bn (£9.63bn).

"Windows 7 continues to be a growth engine, but we also saw strong growth in other areas like Bing search, Xbox Live and our emerging cloud services," said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft.

"Our record third-quarter revenue, along with continued rigour on cost management, resulted in exceptional earnings-per-share growth.”

The business PC refresh cycle is critical to Microsoft, and the company reported that spending had risen as companies upgraded XP and Vista systems. Windows 7 is now running on 10 per cent of the world's PCs, the company claimed.

"Business customers are beginning to refresh their desktops, and the momentum of Windows 7 continues to be strong," said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft.

"We are also seeing tremendous interest in our market-leading cloud services for business."