By Claire Reilly
Microsoft has released its first quarter results for the new financial year, posting significant declines in revenues and income for the three months, due in part to a slowdown in PC sales. However, the company is banking on the upcoming launch of Windows 8 to pull it out of the doldrums.
For the three months ended 30 September 2012, the company posted an operating income of $5.3 billion, down 26 per cent on last year’s figure of $7.2 billion. Revenues also dropped year-on-year, falling from $17.4 billion in FY2011 to $16 billion in FY12.
"While enterprise revenue continued to grow and we managed our expenses, the slowdown in PC demand ahead of the Windows 8 launch resulted in a decline in operating income,” said Microsoft's chief financial officer, Peter Klein.
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Despite the decline in sales of PCs, Microsoft’s chief operating officer, Kevin Turner and CEO Steve Ballmer were bullish in their hopes for the launch of the new Windows 8 operating system.
“The launch of Windows 8 is the beginning of a new era at Microsoft,” said Ballmer. “Investments we’ve made over a number of years are now coming together to create a future of exceptional devices and services, with tremendous opportunity for our customers, developers, and partners.”
Retailers can expect to see a large Windows 8 presence in their stores across a variety of hardware devices, with Turner noting that there were a significant number of brands that will be using the OS.
“We’re incredibly excited to be approaching general availability of Windows 8 and Windows RT,” said Turner. “We’ve already certified more than 1,000 systems for Windows 8 from our hardware partners, ranging from the smallest tablets and convertibles to touch-enabled ultrabooks and all-in-ones to the most powerful desktop computers.”