Microsoft Profits $6.4B in Holiday Quarter, Ships 5.9M Xbox 360s
by William D'Angelo, posted on 24 January 2013 / 5,501 Views
Microsoft has released its financial report for its second quarter which ended December 31, 2012. Microsoft reported a record amount of revenue of $21.46 billion for the company. This is up from $20.89 billion a year ago. Profits for the quarter reached $6.38 billion, down from $6.62 million a year ago.
The Entertainment and Devices Division, which includes the Xbox, posted revenue of $3.77 billion, down from $4.24 billion a year ago. Microsoft cut its money spent on marketing doe the Xbox by 21 percent or $92 million which helped offset the decrease in revenue. Research and development increased by 25 percent or $98 million.
Microsoft also shipped 5.9 million Xbox 360's during the quarter bringing total shipments up to 75.9 million units. However these figures are down from the 8.2 million shipped a year ago.
"Xbox 360 platform revenue decreased $1.1 billion or 29%, due mainly to lower volumes of consoles sold and lower video game revenue, offset in part by higher Xbox LIVE revenue," said Microsoft in a statement.
"We shipped 5.9 million Xbox 360 consoles during the second quarter of fiscal year 2013, compared with 8.2 million Xbox 360 consoles during the second quarter of fiscal year 2012. Video game revenue decreased, primarily due to $380 million of revenue deferred associated with the Video Game Deferral."
The biggest launch of 2012 was Windows 8 which helped increase sales by 24 percent for the Windows Division to $5.88 billion. Microsoft has sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses to date. Other releases include Windows Phone 8 and the Surface tablet.
"Our big, bold ambition to reimagine Windows as well as launch Surface and Windows Phone 8 has sparked growing enthusiasm with our customers and unprecedented opportunity and creativity with our partners and developers," said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft.
"With new Windows devices, including Surface Pro, and the new Office on the horizon, we’ll continue to drive excitement for the Windows ecosystem and deliver our software through devices and services people love and businesses need," Ballmer continued.
