Microsoft’s revenue for the final quarter of 2011 reached a record $ 20.9 billion — up 5 percent, or $ 900 million, in comparison with the year-earlier period, according to the software giant. The company also remains upbeat about its prospects in 2012.
“Coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show, we’re seeing very positive reviews for our new phones and PCs,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. He also referred “to a strong response” at CES “to our new Metro-style design that will unify consumer experiences across our phones, PCs, tablets, and television in 2012.”
Though the PC market overall was challenging for Microsoft during the final quarter of 2011, the software giant saw strong demand for its business products and services, as well as the company’s Xbox 360 entertainment platform.
“This holiday season was the strongest in Microsoft history, thanks to good sales execution and compelling products like Xbox 360 and Kinect,” said Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner.
According to Gartner, PC sales overall fell 1.4 percent in 2011’s seasonally strong fourth quarter, while Microsoft pegged the decline at 2 percent to 4 percent. Among other things, record floods in Thailand had an impact on the delivery of hard disk drives to PC OEMs, they said.
Nevertheless, Microsoft executives continued to see strong demand for the company’s business products and services. “We delivered record earnings per share by continuing to manage our costs while investing for future growth,” said Microsoft CFO Peter Klein.
Windows 7 Enterprise Strength
Microsoft’s executives as well as Gartner’s analysts noted that other computing form factors took a bite out of global PC sales during the fourth quarter.
“We only have a very rough estimate for mini-notebooks — also known as netbooks — but expect that their share of the mobile PC [segment in the fourth quarter of 2011 were] down…
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