Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has credited its cloud products with helping to boost the company’s first quarter profit and revenue figures.
In a statement following an earnings call on 24 October, Ballmer commented: “We are making strategic investments in areas like ... global cloud operations to build for the future and create long-term shareholder value.”
According to the published results, revenue generated by commercial cloud services, which include Outlook.com, SkyDrive and Office 365, grew by 103 per cent.
Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft, said: “we are seeing robust demand for our enterprise products and cloud services. Strong customer adoption of Office 365, Azure, and Dynamics CRM Online is accelerating our business transition to the cloud.
“Our investments in SQL database platform, Hyper-V, System Center, and Lync are driving market share gains as these comprehensive solutions enable customers to increase their insight and efficiency.”
Ballmer also cited the organisation’s upcoming next generation console, the Xbox One, which heavily features cloud gaming technology, as having generated consumer excitement since it was formerly announced on 21 May 2013.
Analysts had revised down profit targets for the Redmond giant over the course of the past three months following its $4.6 billion acquisition of Nokia’s handset business and news CEO Steve Ballmer is to step down by the end of August 2014.
The average analyst revenue forecast for the quarter ending 30 September had been $17.8 billion (£10.97 billion). However Microsoft exceeded this by almost $1 billion, coming in at $18.53 billion (£11.42 billion).
The company posted a profit increase of 17 per cent on the first quarter 2012, up from $4.5 billion (£2.77 billion) to $5.2 billion (£3.2 billion).
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