Vista Sales Strong, Higher Than Expected

An anonymous reader writes "Despite reports, it seems Microsoft is not only alive, but has been thriving these last few months. Following Apple's solid earnings yesterday comes above-expectation reporting from Microsoft. Profits jumped 65% from the previous year, and sales of its Windows operating system were strong: 'Microsoft said it deferred $1.2 billion in Windows Vista revenue to the third quarter, to account for upgrade coupons given to PC buyers during the holiday season before the consumer launch of the new operating system. Excluding this figure, client revenue totaled $4.1 billion, 30 percent higher than last year.' Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said Vista beat internal forecasts by $300 million to $400 million, and Office 2007 sales were $200 million better than expected."

Comments

Re:Expectations

[KKlaus]

Yeah I don't know what this is all about either. Anyone think they might just constantly adjust expectations so they always beat them by a fair margin?

Wake me when they exceed someone _else_'s expectations. But that won't happen because everyone else is smart enough to say, gee, you force OEM's to put Vista on all new computers they sell. You think that might sell a bunch of licenses? Anyone that didn't expect Vista to sell when consumers really don't have a choice in the matter obviously needs their head checked. But of course if MS was honest and said, well, we expect to sell a lot of copies of Vista because we told Dell et al to put it on all new PCs they ship, well then they wouldn't get to write these nice pieces about how WOWZOR! Vista is doing even better than even we could expect! WOW, please buy our stock now kthx.

Anyhow. Cheers.

Re:Well it figures

[h00pla]

Obligatory defense response. Now we know it's astroturfing.