Microsoft Beats The Street: Is It Back?

Yesterday, the mighty behemoth from Redmond, Microsoft, beat the street's consensus. It reported a staggering $16.2B in its 1st quarterly revenue, which was up by a very respectable 25%.

As impressive as the giant's last quarter was, however, as Joe Wilcox reported, it might have beat ".... the consensus but not Apple," which also just recently reported over $20B in revenue.

Of course, Windows 7 helped to play a large part in Microsoft's great quarter, but, surprisingly, even though Windows has traditionally been considered to be Microsoft's cash cow, Joe actually reported that Windows revenues, of some $4.76B, was actually eclipsed by its business unit which reported revenues of some $5.126B!

Even though Microsoft revenues were some $4B less than Apple, it still nonetheless made over $1B more in profits than the latter. Traditionally, software has always had a much higher margin of profit than hardware, so no surprises there.

Microsoft's great quarter should help to dampen a lot of recent negative articles about the company. Articles such as CNNMoney's recent: "Microsoft is a dying consumer brand" , which stated:

" Consumers have turned their backs on Microsoft. A company that once symbolized the future is now living in the past."

So, is Microsoft really a relic of the past, or is it back?

Clearly, they're not were they used to be, but, on the other hand, I wouldn't exactly call them out of the game just yet either. With newer products such as Windows 7 and Windows 7 Mobile, plus its XBox Kinetic, Microsoft has a lot to look forward to, but whether they are really back for good is still up in the air. That's because with the realization that their main cash cow of producing traditional desktop PC operating systems is no longer as important or as relevant as it used to be, Microsoft will be forced to look past the PC before it's claim to be really back, but if anyone can pull it off it's Microsoft.

In conclusion, Microsoft may have been down, but its recent 1st quarterly results also proves that it's clearly a force to be reckoned with. Time will tell, as it usually does, however, whether its really back, and back to stay.

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Friday, October 29, 2010