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Microsoft has strong quarter on eve of Windows Phone 7

By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, October 28th, 2010 at 3:18 PM
Windows Phone 7 is poised to debut as Microsoft has a strong quarter
Windows Phone 7 is poised to debut as Microsoft has a strong quarter

Microsoft had a great fiscal first quarter with little help from its mobile division. You have to wonder how well it can do once it finally releases Windows Phone 7 next month.

According to the company, it had “revenue of $16.20 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2010, a 25% increase from the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $7.12 billion, $5.41 billion and $0.62 per share, which represented increases of 59%, 51% and 55%, respectively, when compared with the prior year period.

As you would expect, Microsoft’s cash cows were Windows 7 and Office but Xbox 360 continues to gain traction. The company’s mobile division didn’t fare that well because no on in their right mind is buying a Windows Mobile smartphone now. The only people I could think who would want this are people who need a smartphone to play nice with their company and those out of the loop.

This is the last quarter that won’t take Windows Phone 7 into account. The company is launching 9 handsets in 30 countries beginning later this month and it has a decent chance of being a hit.

In our review of Windows Phone 7, we liked the new smartphone platform but felt like it was missing some key features like copy and paste, robust third-party app multitasking and the ability to tether.

As for the handsets itself, feel free to read our reviews of the HTC Surround and Samsung Focus to get a feel for what type of devices we can look forward to. Both are solid devices but I’d lean toward the Focus if I were choosing between the two.

Windows Phone 7 is facing some steep challenges though, as Apple iOS, Google Android and Research In Motion BlackBerry are already mature platforms with strong customer bases. Throw in HP Palm with webOS and Microsoft will definitely be in for a fight.

[Via Microsoft]

About The Author

Marin Perez

Marin Perez has torture tested cell phones and smartphones for industry leaders like CNET and InformationWeek. He remembers when 4G was just a screen on PowerPoint presentations and is fascinated with the amount of innovation out there. Marin has spent a lot of time with BlackBerry and Android but he finally broke down a bought an iPhone to see what all the hype's about. He also has too many tablets.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Q6M33SC7AMDYYZUPUMJIS37IH4 Tekster

    I want to point out that in your posts/review, you consistantly mention missing features like copy/past, multitasking, tethering. Which gave readers wrong impression. Those features are not must have features. Most users can live with it. copy/past is already conifrmed to be available in a few month. Others look like easy fixes, it won’t take long to add on. I don’t think people want those features so much that would affect their purchase decision, since it is just a matter of a few month. Simply say missing key features is not enough. I know in some articles details a unveiled, but they are scattered. If I only read this post I would think, oh, missing key features, why would I buy a phone that is missing key features. They don’t know some features like tethering, general user may not need at all.

  • Anonymous

    I’ve been playing with the Surround for about two weeks now and it is missing features that a customer should expect when buying a top-of-the-line smartphone, which is what MS is positioning this as. Copy and paste will soon be fixed but the lack of multitasking does become a pain in the booty the longer you use the phone.

    Well, let me clarify that, I can live without true multitasking if you have quick-switching of third-party apps like you did on pre-iOS 4 devices. I thought that it would be okay because of the new UI metaphors and paradigms but it’s not really – I still want to dive into some individual apps on WP7.

    I probably don’t stress how cool WP7 is out of the gates and that it will satisfy the needs of many users. But it’s a disservice to consumers to gloss over the fact that competing devices can offer things that WP7 can’t yet.