Oct 29, 2010 09:52 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft’s main cash cows as well as the business built around its console and adjacent games have fueled record revenue for the company. On October 28th, the software giant revealed a 25% increase in revenue for the first quarter of the 2011 fiscal year. In the three months ended on September 30, Microsoft’s revenue grew to $16.20 billion.

Crediting the market success of Windows 7, Office 2010 and Xbox 360 games and consoles, the Redmond company noted that operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share have increased by 59%, 51% and 55%, respectively, to $7.12 billion, $5.41 billion and $0.62 per share.

“This was an exceptional quarter, combining solid enterprise growth and continued strong consumer demand for Office 2010, Windows 7, and Xbox 360 consoles and games,” said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft.

One year after Windows 7 hit store shelves worldwide, the operating system sold in excess of 240 million copies.

Earlier this month, the first statistics for Office 2010 sales were also made public. It appears that over 6 million copies of Office 2010 have been sold since its launch in mid-2010.

“Our ability to grow revenue while continuing to control costs allowed us to deliver another quarter of year-over-year margin expansion,” Klein added.

Data shared by Microsoft indicates that Windows and Windows Live is the company’s highest earner with $4.79 billion in revenue, representing a growth of 10% over the same quarter last year.

The Server and Tools division pulled in $1.6 billion in Q1 FY2011, with the Microsoft Business Division (which included Office 2010) rising to $3.4 billion.

The Entertainment & Devices is responsible for a 27% jump in revenue for the first quarter of the 2011 fiscal year, to approximately $1.8 billion. The launch of Halo: Reach alone brought some $350 million in revenue in the past quarter.

‘We are seeing improved business demand and adoption. Our enterprise agreement rates were strong, reflecting business commitment to Windows 7, Office 2010, and our server and database products,” noted Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft.

“Customer demand and excitement for our cloud and commercial online services continue to grow as demonstrated by major new customer wins this quarter for Windows Azure and by the significant customer interest in our recently announced Office 365 service,” Turner revealed.

Microsoft also offered a few highlights:

“• Office 2010 is off to a fast start with revenue growing over 15% in its first full quarter in market.

• Microsoft continues to see a healthy and sustaining business PC refresh cycle.

• Xbox 360 consoles grew 38%, outselling every competing console in the U.S. for each of the past four months.

• For yet another quarter, Bing continued to grow market share, while achieving major milestones in implementing Microsoft’s partnership with Yahoo.”

Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-Day Evaluation is available for download here.
Office Home and Business 2010 RTM Build 14.0.4760.1000 is available for download here.

Office Home and Student 2010 RTM Build 14.0.4760.1000 is available for download
here.

Office Professional 2010 RTM Build 14.0.4760.1000 is available for download
here.