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The news from Microsoft's Q3 Earnings Report is understandably all about Vista, which was clearly MS's bigger release of the past few months:
Shares of Microsoft Corp. soared nearly 5 percent Friday, after the company posted a 65 percent jump in third-quarter profit, boosted by sales of its new Windows Vista operating system and Office 2007, and by upgrade coupons issued over the holidays.
Read: Microsoft's Vista Sales Boost 3Q Profit - washingtonpost.com
...But don't take that to mean that there wasn't anything in the webcast about Windows Mobile 6, their other big OS release. As the pictured slide shows, MS has a nasty habit of lumping WM6 with the XBOX -- the "Entertainment & Devices Division." This transcript of the webcast helps us see the following (thanks to mocoNews.net for the tip):
Our Mobile and Embedded Devices business continued to turn in strong performance, with revenue growth in excess of 30%. During the quarter we unveiled Windows Mobile 6, the next version of our Windows Mobile software platform. We expect to see an increasing number of Windows Mobile 6 powered devices coming to market through the rest of this year.
Revenue growth of 30% over last year is pretty nice, it will be interesting to see if they can maintain that sort of growth once WM6 devices actually become available. The competition in this space is going to be fierce in the next year -- rabid werewolf who thinks you did something unmentionable to his mother fierce. My guess is MS will be able to continue to pressure RIM in the business space and will have their work cut out of them in the "I want a smartphone but can't afford the iPhone" space.
