14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft unveiled today its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2015, reporting $4.5 billion (3.5 billion euro) in net income and $23.20 billion (18.3 billion euro) in revenue.
As compared to the same period last year, the revenue has experienced an increase from $18.53 billion (14.6 billion euro), but at the same time, the net income dropped 14 percent to $5.24 billion (4.14 billion euro).
According to Microsoft itself, this decrease shouldn’t come as a big surprise given the fact that the company spent $1.14 billion (901 million euro) on integration and restructuring following the Nokia acquisition, which was officially completed earlier this year.
One interesting point is that sales of Lumia devices have increased significantly during the quarter, which is living proof that Microsoft’s decision to invest more in the smartphone business could help boost profit.
Official figures show that Microsoft posted revenues for the Windows Phone hardware division worth $2.6 billion (2 billion euro), with the company selling no less than 9.3 million Lumia phones during the period. A total of 8.8 million devices were sold during the same timeframe the year before.
The Surface division also doing well
Microsoft’s financial report reveals that Surface Pro 3 momentum generated a revenue of $908 million (717 million euro), with the company pointing out that sales of its flagship tablet go very well these days.
“Customers are embracing our latest technologies from Surface Pro 3 and Office 365 to Azure and SQL Server,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. “Through great execution by our sales teams and our partners, we have been able to deliver our truly differentiated value to the marketplace.”
As far as Windows is concerned, the company said that consumer licensing programs “drove positive growth,” while the OEM non-Pro business posted a drop of 1 percent.
In the commercial industry, the Windows volume licensing revenue returned a growth of 10 percent, the company revealed.
It’s all because of innovations
Wondering why revenues of the majority of divisions increased? Microsoft says that its focus on innovation is quickly paying off, as the products it launched in the past 12 months were especially tweaked to tackle this particular aspect.
“We are innovating faster, engaging more deeply across the industry, and putting our customers at the center of everything we do, all of which positions Microsoft for future growth,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft. “Our teams are delivering on our core focus of reinventing productivity and creating platforms that empower every individual and organization.”
The new CEO Satya Nadella is also putting the focus on consumer feedback, trying with the latest products to involve users even more in the development process.
Windows 10 is living proof that Microsoft is working to make its products better for users, with several feedback programs launched specifically to get closer to consumers and hear about their requests.