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Microsoft has announced an impressive rise in sales of its cloud products, however Windows OEM sales dipped during its financial Q3 as the tech giant posted a small drop in profit.
Amazon also announced strong cloud sales for its financial Q1 2015, while Google posted a small increase in profit for its Q1 2015 period.
Microsoft’s commercial cloud revenue grew 106 per cent driven by Office 365, Azure and Dynamics CRM Online, and is now on an annualized revenue run rate of $6.3 billion.
Office 365 Consumer subscribers increased to over 12.4 million, up 35 per cent sequentially, while server products and services revenue grew 12 per cent and other Office commercial products and services revenue declined two per cent.
Devices and consumer revenue grew eight per cent overall, however Windows OEM Pro revenue declined 19 per cent, due to "Pro mix returning to pre-Windows XP end-of-support levels and the business PC market declined", while Windows OEM non-Pro revenue declined 26 per cent, which Microsoft says was "primarily due to channel inventory drawdown and ongoing mix shift to opening price point devices".
Surface revenue rose 44 per cent to $713 million during the period, driven by sales of the Surface Pro 3.
Overall, Microsoft revenues for the quarter ended March 31st 2015 grew six per cent to $21.7 billion, while operating income fell five per cent to $6.6 billion during the quarter.
The strengthening of the US dollar compared to foreign currencies had a ‘significant impact’ on results in the quarter, Microsoft said.
"Customers continue to choose Microsoft to transform their business and as a result we saw incredible growth across our cloud services this quarter," said Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft. "Next week at Build we’re excited to share more about how we’re empowering every individual and organization on the planet to achieve more with the next generation of our platforms."
Amazon, meanwhile, also said its cloud sales grew during the period.
"Amazon Web Services is a $5 billion business and still growing fast – in fact it’s accelerating," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.
"Born a decade ago, AWS is a good example of how we approach ideas and risk-taking at Amazon. We strive to focus relentlessly on the customer, innovate rapidly, and drive operational excellence. We manage by two seemingly contradictory traits: impatience to deliver faster and a willingness to think long term. We are so grateful to our AWS customers and remain dedicated to inventing on their behalf."
Overall, Amazon’s net sales increased 15 per cent to $22.72 billion during the first quarter, but it made a net loss of $57 million.
Comparatively, Google’s first quarter revenue was $17.3 billion, up 12 per cent year on year. The firm recorded a four per cent increase in profit to $3.6 billion.
Patrick Pichette, CFO of Google, commented: “We continue to see great momentum in our mobile advertising business and opportunities with brand advertisers.”
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