Microsoft Still Making More $$$ Than Apple

Apple on Tuesday reported earnings of $15.7 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion or $3.51 per diluted share. With successful launches of both the iPad and iPhone 4, Apple was pretty pleased with its quarterly report for the third quarter of its fiscal year, but was it enough to beat long-time rival, Microsoft?

In the run up to Microsoft's earnings call, which took place yesterday, there was speculation that this could be the first time Apple actually made more money than Microsoft. However, the Redmond-based company has since revealed revenues of $16.04 billion – which is ahead of estimates from Wall Street – and a net profit of $4.52 billion (a 48 percent increase over last year), or $0.51 per share per diluted share.

Microsoft also revealed that it has sold 175 million Windows 7 licenses and 1.5 million Xboxes. The company reported an Xbox Live subscriber base of more than 25 million.

It's certainly a different picture to the one painted last year, when Microsoft reported its first annual sales decline in company history. However, not every department is making boatloads of money. FastCompany reports that "Online services," (Bing, Bing Maps, etc.) was the only major sector of Microsoft to lose money, but things aren't all bad there, either as Microsoft reports Bing growth has been up for 13 consecutive months.

Because this was Microsoft's fourth fiscal year quarter, Redmond also released numbers for its fiscal year ended June 30, 2010. For FY2010, the company reported revenue of $62.48 billion, a 7 percent increase from the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the year were $24.10 billion, $18.76 billion and $2.10, which represented increases of 18 percent, 29 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

Read Microsoft's official statement here.