Microsoft claims strong quarterly earnings

Microsoft has posted record quarterly earnings in its latest financial report.

The company said that it pulled in some US$4.52 billion in net income over the quarter ending in June, up 48 percent from last year and the best ever for that financial quarter.

Microsoft credited the jump in part to the launch of its Office 2010 productivity suite along with strong sales of its Windows 7 operating system due to rising PC sales.

"We saw strong sales execution across all of our businesses, particularly in the enterprise with Windows 7 and Office 2010," said Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner.

"Our transition to cloud services is well underway with offerings like Windows Azure and our Business Productivity Online Services, and we look forward to continuing our product momentum this fall with the upcoming launches of Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Kinect."

Directions On Microsoft analyst Matt Rosoff said that the growth in part was due to increases in spending from enterprise IT customers, a trend that has been noticed across the entire technology industry.

The analyst said that the report was a sign that the company was ready to move past a rough financial stretch brought on by the economic downturn.

"It brings them back or slightly ahead to where they were at the end of their 2008 fiscal year," said Rosoff.

"It seems like they are back on the growth trajectory they were on before the downturn."