
"Microsoft profit jumped 51 percent year over year and
recorded record quarterly revenue during Q1 of its fiscal year 2011, the company said today, killing Wall Street estimates as skepticism surrounded Microsoft's cash cows. Net income skyrocketed from $3.57 billion in Q1FY10 to $5.41 billion in the quarter ending Sept. 30, launched by strong sales of Windows 7 and Office 2010. The year-ago period, however, was a low point as Microsoft weathered the poor economy. Earnings per share was 62 cents, eclipsing the Wall Street consensus estimate of 55 cents. And while analysts had expected revenue of $15.8 billion, Microsoft reported $16.2 billion - up 25 percent over the year-ago period."
Member since:
2008-10-23
Basically, they don't care about the tiny minority of people who want the hardware without the software. They only care about the money. Selling hardware is not as profitable as selling software, because software has no duplication cost. So they link the sale of hardware with the software. This is illegal in most countries but it does not matter as long as the legal cost is lower than the benefit for them.