MacDailyNews Take: Apple earned $15.70 billion, not $15.07 billion, in revenue last quarter.
Elmer-DeWitt continues, “But it was not to be — at least not yet. Microsoft (MSFT) reported its fourth quarter earnings… of $0.51 on record sales of $16.04 billion, up 22% year over year.”
“But Steve Ballmer’s lead over Steve Jobs’s lead may not last long. For the quarter that ends in September, Apple is forecasting sales of $18 billion,” Elmer-DeWitt reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s always nice to have something to look forward to and — Microsoft shareholders, look away — it’s certainly not Ballmer’s lead; the money Microsoft makes is in spite of its CEO. Hopefully, this quells talk of a Microsoft CEO coup for at least another quarter. May Ballmer remain Microsoft CEO for as long as it takes!
Everybody knows this won’t last. Apple has the momentum.
Fine by me. Let Ballmer use this to camouflage his incompetence a little while longer.
Oops. The writer must have accidentally transposed the numbers on Apple’s earnings. They reported $15.70 billion in revenue for the quarter.
Bugger . . . . . ‘puts bottle back in cellar for three months’.
How can that company make so much money peddling such crap to the world?
@ MacBill
There’s just no accounting for bad taste, except for that 16M though..
Damn…
Looks like it’s about time for me to go get another bottle of Dom Perignon to put on ice.
Gonna need it soon…
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May Ballmer remain CEO for as long as it takes… *hic*
Sorry, 16.04B..
15.07 vs. 15.70
It’s funny- the “rounding errors” the ANALists make never work in Apple’s favor…
September will be the turning point. If Apple forecasts 18B, we know it’ll easily pass it. And what about the quarter after the holidays?? NOBODY buys a copy of Windows or Office for Christmas!!!!
I’m sure Microsoft does not really care about this “race,” and Apple does not either. What matters is that Apple is heading up, and Microsoft is (at best) stagnant.
Apple sold a record number of iPhone 4s at launch and can’t keep up with demand. Microsoft launched Kin (after two+ years of development) and cancelled it a few weeks later, after supposedly selling only a few hundred units. Windows Phone 7 is still not launched and does not look too promising as competition for iPhone, Blackberry, or Android.
Apple released iPad, sold 3 million units in 80 days, and can’t keep up with demand. Microsoft can’t get any of its hardware “partners” to use Windows 7 in a tablet product (one that’s not an ugly “convertible” monster). HP, Microsoft largest partner for Windows, gave up and bought Palm to try again with WebOS.
Apple sold a record number of Macs in the last completed quarter and will no doubt easily break that record in the current quarter; Mac sales growth is easily beating the industry average. The rest of the industry, which makes up most of that “average,” uses Windows.
Just having fun speculating here, but lets say a large corporation is about to be embarrassed by another large, but typically smaller corporation. So let’s say that large corporation decides to play, oh I don’t know, accounting games with their revenue so they squeak by that typically smaller corporation. Now that could never happen, right? No one would ever find out about it, right? Ahhh, speculation is fun. No, I’d know a thing, just having fun at ms’s expense. And long live ballmer!
I’m just grateful that Apple, Microsoft, others are making global profits. The Apple/Microsoft feud is history in my book – Apple won. This is 2010 and it’s a tough world out there.
Told you so, MAC sheep. It’s always “wait until next year” with you losers.
Great job, Microsoft!
Your potential. Our passion.™
Where is Nokia Tang when we need him?
@ Mac Fan
accounting tricks get caught, look here, about DELL !
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-22/dell-agrees-to-pay-100-million-to-settle-sec-fraud-claims.html
Zune Tang is laughable!! Poor devil…
All the PC apologists on Gizmodo are talking about how there’s “no way” Apple would have more revenue than MS, and that MS is still crushing Apple.
It’s going to be a bitter day in October for those fools.
Must be a rounding error…
I wonder how much deferred revenue Microsoft used to stay ahead of Apple.
Someone should scrutinize Microsoft’s books. I think the numbers are fudged!
Whew, saved by that automatic money generating revenue BS that we have in place for over 20 years. Yipeeeeee!
Of course Microsoft beat Apple. They’ve had more than enough time to cook the books after seeing Apple’s results.
The bastards.
@ Macromancer
Those guys are complete idiots. That number is so close, its not even near the word “crush” to describe that number. More like “squeaks by” as MDN puts it. That squeak description is not about Ballmer farting. That’s more like a Super Oil Tanker blow horn!
It’ll be surpassed by end of this weekend, if the iPad+iPhone sales lead were true.
All Hail Ballmer for another year!