Halo 3, Vista pushed Microsoft revenue up 27%

Microsoft on October 24 announced its first-quarter fiscal year profit increased by 23%. The unexpected success of Halo 3, the Windows Vista operating system and the Office application version is the motivation for Microsoft to achieve the above result.

By the end of September 30 - the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2007 - the world's No. 1 software firm's profit stopped at $ 4.29 billion - an increase of 23% over the same period last year. This profit figure has broken all the predictions of Wall Street financials.

At the same time, Microsoft's revenue reached $ 13.76 billion, up 27% from last year's figure ($ 10.81 billion). This revenue is still higher than 1 billion USD compared to the forecast of the financial world.

Since its official launch in January until the end of the first quarter of 2007, Microsoft has sold a total of 88 million copies of Windows Vista. In particular, the period from January to the end of July Microsoft sold only 28 million copies. The rest is sold in August and September.

The latest version of the Windows operating system contributed to $ 4.14 billion in its total revenue in the first quarter of this year. This suggests that Windows continues to be Microsoft's "golden egg chicken".

The Office 2007 edition also contributed as much revenue as Windows Vista. The latest version of the famous office suite contributes US $ 4.11 billion to its total revenue.

The most successful in the first quarter of 2007 was the Halo 3 game version for Microsoft Xbox 360. The resounding success of this game version contributed to the profitability of Microsoft's entertainment equipment division in the first quarter to $ 165 million. Sales of the division doubled compared to last year, reaching $ 1.93 billion of which $ 330 million was revenue from Halo 3.

But the entertainment equipment department is not much expected by Microsoft but on the contrary, the company also forecasted that in the end of the shopping season, the revenue will not increase much but may also decrease by 8% compared to last year.

Thanks to the positive business results mentioned above, Microsoft has increased the revenue forecast for the 2007 fiscal year. It is expected that this year it will earn about 58.8-59.7 billion USD.

Hoang Dung