Microsoft has posted a $3.65bn (£2.1bn) profit on sales of $11.83bn for its second quarter, to 31 December.
The performance marks an improvement on the same quarter last year, when the company saw a $3.46bn profit on sales of $10.82bn.
This year’s second quarter was helped by a tax credit, although the performance could have been even better if Microsoft hadn’t run out of Xbox 360 games consoles.
Component shortages were blamed for not getting enough consoles to market.
Microsoft said it saw “strong demand” in the quarter for its PC software.
The company said server products saw stronger than expected demand, and sales of the Windows client and Office business suite lines were in line with expectations.
One significant plus for the company was that the Microsoft Business Solutions and the Mobile and Embedded divisions were in the black for the first time.
The business solutions unit sells business applications for the mid-sized market. Microsoft has been revamping these products over the past year.
