Microsoft announced that it had sales of just 4.5 million Lumia devices during the holiday quarter of 2015, down more than 50% year-over-year.
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For the quarter ended December 31, Microsoft reported adjusted earnings per share of 78 cents on revenue of $25.69 billion.
During the quarter, Microsoft returned $6.5 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends. The company’s cloud based service revenue grew 10 percent and its Azure revenue increased 140 percent.
On the Windows side, revenue for the More Personal Computing division was down five percent, or two percent in constant currency, according to Microsoft. The declining PC market still affected the company, even though Windows 10 released last summer, as Windows OEM Pro revenue fell 6 per cent. Overall phone revenue fared little better, with a 49% year on year decline.
“We delivered double-digit operating income growth in non-GAAP constant currency while investing in key strategic areas that position Microsoft for continued long-term growth”, said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft, in a statement.
The company’s management will provide guidance during tonight’s earnings call.
Like everyone, Microsoft was keen to highlight fast-growing “commercial cloud” computing sales, which it claims are now running at an annualised rate of $9.4bn.
Xbox Live monthly active users grew 30% year-over-year to a record 48 million. “The rise of HoloLens and Xbox as Windows platforms with Universal Windows Apps will continue this as the year unfolds, and absent any stumbles, seeding the cloud will make rain there as well”. Microsoft and Nokia have sold a total of 110 million Windows Phones compared to 4.5 billion iOS and Android phones in the same period. The company’s Productivity and Business Processes group, responsible for applications like Office 365 and Dynamics CRM, took in $6.7 billion, down 2% year-over-year in Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) terms but up 5% in constant currency.
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Microsoft Office 365 consumer subscribers increased to 20.6 million.
