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Microsoft FY15 Q2 Earnings Preview: Strong Cloud Numbers, Devices Improving

Microsoft FY15 Q2 Earnings Preview: Strong Cloud Numbers, Devices Improving

Microsoft today is announcing its earnings for the second quarter of fiscal year 2015. The details are slated to be detailed in an investors call later today. I'll dig deeper and parse out the numbers later on but wanted to give you an overview of what will be represented in that call, and highlight the key areas where Microsoft has seen growth.

Under Satya Nadella, Microsoft has been steadily revamping its business and the renewed focus seems to be paying off. Here's some of the highlights worth noting.

Overall the devices and consumer revenue grew 8%, led by:

  • Microsoft Surface has now become the next billion dollar business. Revenue is up 24% to $1.1 billion.
  • Office 365 Home and Personal subscriptions are up by 30%.
  • Though not giving holiday sales numbers, nor breaking out Xbox 360 against Xbox One, Microsoft is showing Xbox console sales at over 6.6 million units.
  • Affordable smartphones seems to be the catchword for the day for the company's phone hardware sales. Revenue is at $2.3 billion with 10.5 million Lumias sold.
  • Windows OS revenue declined in both Pro and non-Pro licensing. This was totally expected. A year from now, this could be totally reversed should Windows 10 reach mass adoption.

Commercial revenue continues to be Microsoft's mainstay, with:

  • Cloud. Microsoft Cloud revenue grew by 114%.
  • Once again System Center and SQL Server lead the pack in commercial revenue, leading to another double-digit growth spurt. It's worth nothing here that while Azure continues growing at a steady pace, System Center and SQL Server represent on-premises products. Going from nothing to something (Azure) will always show improvements, so it seems companies are still focusing heavily on on-premises systems.
  • While commercial OS revenues declined, volume licensing for Windows grew by 3%.

With such a big push behind Microsoft's new mobile device management suite in Microsoft Intune, it'll be interesting to hear where that product fits in the reported revenue structure, if it is detailed at all, or if it is just tucked away inside Cloud or System Center revenue numbers.

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