Windows: When no growth is an improvement

Microsoft yesterday said that revenue in the September quarter for the More Personal Computing group was down 2%, the second consecutive quarter of year-over-year declines and the fifth contraction in the last six quarters.

Windows revenue, which accounts for the bulk of More Personal Computing's (MPC) total, was flat. But that was an improvement over the prior quarter, when sales of the operating system were down 4%.

"Our total [Windows] OEM business was flat this quarter, more in line with the PC market and better than we expected," said Amy Hood, Microsoft's chief financial officer, during a call with Wall Street analysts Thursday. Most of Microsoft's income from Windows comes from license sales to device makers, called OEMs for "original equipment manufacturers."

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here