back to article Microsoft rides PCs and Xboxen to rich Q2

Microsoft reported fiscal second-quarter earnings that surpassed Wall Street's already lofty expectations, as sales of PCs and Xboxes soared. The company also forecast future results that met or beat analysts' outlook. Net income for the period ended December 31 rose 79 per cent to $4.7bn, or 50 cents a share, from $2.6bn, or …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Well done MS!

    (polite applause)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    apple

    They should start making computers. you know, user serviceable, replaceable battery, expandable, not locked in, not beholden to movie and record mafia, function gets an edge in over form.

    be less greedy apple. it will do you good. maybe take some green tea or something. your fanboys are revolting!

  3. Stuart Duel

    Like watching the dying years of a star

    @ DeFex

    Well you can keep your overcooked spaghetti OS and chucked together boxes, which I said good bye to in 2001 and have never, ever had a reason to look back. Well, maybe occasionally for chuckles. Giggles. Some guffaws.

  4. Andy Worth

    Apple should make a console

    Don't you think? Apple should make a rival to the Xbox. Only thing is, it'd look fantastic, but cost three times as much.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Halo

    Warm & Fuzzy

    I'm less of a MS fanboy and more of an Apple detractor (for reasons along the lines mentioned by DeFex, including their horrible lock in on the iPhone) and this news just warms the cockles.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    @ DeFex

    DeFex, so Apple release a single machine which is not expandable, replacable battery, etc and you label everything they've released that?

    I think if you actually knew what you were talking about you'd know all other Mac laptops can replace batteries, and are a lot more expandable too. Also desktop Macs are user servicable, (dont need a battery), extremely expandable, and function pretty f'n well. Also no Macs are 'locked in' to using OSX only, and support Windows installations out of the box.

    The movie/record media mafia bit only applies to iTunes, not Macs, so i don't see how its even an issue. If you want to talk a company being held to mafia, look at Microsoft and their incredibly crippled via DRM version of Windows, Vista. Mac OS X is no where near as locked down when it comes to moving/copying media, so get a grip on reality mate. You Mirosoft fan boys are so blind you wouldn't see a train coming if you were standing on its tracks.

    PS. I own multiple PCs, Macs, and other platforms too. So unlike you i actually do know what im talking about.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    @ DeFex

    "be less greedy apple. your fanboys are revolting!"

    Not as revolting as Linux fanboys. At least Apple fanboys wash occasionally.

    Now where did I put that cloakroom ticket?

  8. StooMonster
    Gates Horns

    Pot. Kettle. Black.

    The irony of DeFex's statement about fanboys is hilarious "not locked in, not beholden to movie and record mafia"

    Cough ... propertary formats (WMA, WMV, etc.)

    Cough ... DRM laden OS (Vista)

    Cough

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Halo

    @ DeFex

    I've always found Apple fanboys somewhat revolting too

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    @ Anon. Coward - get your Mac facts a bit straighter

    "Also desktop Macs are user servicable, (dont need a battery), extremely expandable, and function pretty f'n well. "

    I wouldn't call the ability to upgrade the memory "extremely expandable" - 'cos that's all you can do with an iMac! No CPU upgrade, no HDD upgrade, no GFX upgrade. I guess you meant Mac Pros, but iMacs are desktops too...

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    @ Anon C "@ Anon. Coward - get your Mac facts a bit straighter"

    Erm... right.. erm.. ok... Another useless post. Get YOUR facts straight. If you know what you are doing, and not just a 'fettler of machines' you'd know that you CAN upgrade alot more than the memory.

    Cough.. Cough..

    You PC user, you...

  12. Mark SPLINTER
    Jobs Halo

    upgrading macs

    thing is, you don't need to upgrade macs, because the OS updates are never bloated shitware.

    2004 Powerbook G4 still going strong. LOL @ "macs are expensive".

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Okay my bad!

    So i didn't implicity imply the exact models which do / don't, i should've said 'most Mac desktops', my mistake. I'm aware iMacs are limited in that sense, but the market they are designed for aren't likely to want to do much of a system overhaul,

    I can't see any true power user going for anything less than a tower if they are the kind who is used to building their own PCs. But it's no difference to buying some of the mini-PC mobos out there, the expandability is quite limited, but I could only imagine people who buy it would be aware of that. As a side note though I have upgraded a HDD in an iMac before, so it can be done in some of their models.

    On a side note, people seem to be overlooking that Apple announced their biggest profit to date. Their outlook was poor, but then again given the fact that stockmarkets around the world reached the lowest point they have in decades and everyones crying recession.

    Maybe Apple are just playing things conservatively and it may be Microsoft eating humble pie come the end of the next quarter if these financial predictions of the market come true, even server based spending gets cut backs if businesses decide they have to cut spending (which is already happening in the finance industry here in the UK).

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    @Stuart dual

    'Well you can keep your overcooked spaghetti OS and chucked together boxes, which I said good bye to in 2001 and have never, ever had a reason to look back'

    You forgot to add

    because I'm a sheep who wants to be told everything I can do with my computer, what I can put inside my computer, what I can run on it and never ever use it in a way that was never imagined by the almighty Jobs or step outside the Apple bubble.

    I'm guessing you work in media which is why you are so attached to Apple. Just like the Mac, all the media can produce is shiny, sparkly flashy things with nice soundbites that make people go whoooo but have no actual practical use.

  15. Peter Gordon
    Thumb Up

    Re: Apple should make a console

    They did:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pippin

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    @ Peter Gordon

    Yep and what a surprise it was expensive and poorly supported :-)

    Paris, as she would of bought one to go alongside her 3DO

  17. paul
    Flame

    xbox still at a loss

    a big loss it is as well.

    They are still not making a profit on each machine sold as they have to spend so much replacing a 1/3 as they are faulty ones with the ring of death.

  18. SpitefulGOD
    Gates Halo

    Money.. money.. money...

    Horay for the power of Microsoft!!!!

    Apple are doing well too, let's be proud of them both... but MS more!

    Now BillG has more money for his charities and Steve Jobs has more money for his face lifts and prostitutes.

  19. Smell My Finger

    Microsoft to blame!

    I take it the endless "think" pieces people post about the imminent demise of Microsoft might end? No, didn't think so...

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    Awaiting puberty?

    Someone should impose an 'Adult Only' limit on commenting here... but I must admit, watching the teenage fanboys argyuing over minor points and calling each other stupid is fun. Takes me back to the heady days of "My Amiga is better than your shit Atari ST!"

    Once they discover girls (or boys depending on gender and orientation), they'll stop worrying about what OS someone else is using.

    They're so JPZR!

  21. Jason
    Joke

    Previously religion started wars....

    World war 3 is going to be between Mac and Windows Fanboys, I wonder which OS can be used to design and build a mechanoid with large plasma cannons first.....

  22. Colin Millar
    Go

    @StooMonster@Okay my bad!

    You forgot the utterly pointless and horrible M$ lock-up of MPEG2 - dvr-ms

    Mini-pc mobos - limited expandibility? You haven't checked out the M-ATX market recently. The one I bought recently has two standard PCI and 1 PCIe which will take a double slot without ruling out a PCI line, multiple sata (including external), HDMI output and onboard sound and video good enough for movies. You can even run crossfire in this format these days. You'll obviously never get everything you can get on an ATX board but presumably space is a limiting factor. BYO based on a high end MATX and you'll beat any AppleMedia appliance hands down (including for style).

  23. John Stag

    So that means...

    So that means that all those "biggest fine ever" anti-trust fines are about a week's profit. Maybe less, because I'm sure they'll deduct it as an expense.

    One of those every couple of years...that must hurt badly. No really.

  24. Dana W
    Happy

    Vista?

    " I'm a sheep who wants to be told everything I can do with my computer, "

    The perfect description of the Vista experience!

    Last I looked my mac does not refuse to let me run "unapproved" software, nor does my Buntu box for that matter.

  25. Joe Cooper
    Paris Hilton

    iMac

    Why in the blue hell would you complain about iMac servicability? The whole idea and purpose of the iMac is to have a really little base and a tightly integrated unit. You can't be all things to all people.

    That's why they have MAC TOWERS.

    That's just fuckn stupid.

  26. Chris
    Thumb Down

    What?

    So the school bully took everybody's lunch money and now we should congratulate him for it as well? oh please.

    Grow up.

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