Microsoft will posts its quarterly results next week and no evidence of its predicted earnings slowdown is in evidence. Analysts expect Microsoft to report revenues of about $3 billion, up 35% from the same quarter a year ago. By all accounts, Microsoft is expected to meet or exceed Wall Street estimates.
For future growth, however, Microsoft will need to release significant new products. The next version of Office isn't expected until late 1998 at the earliest, so Windows NT 5.0 will have to carry the load for Microsoft next year. Windows 98, an uneventful release that's been delayed several times, is not expected to affect Microsoft's fiscal 1998 earnings at all. Even Bill Gates has referred to the unexciting upgrade as a non-event, stunting demand
