On the surface, if you’re a Microsoft stockholder, you’ll probably be reasonably pleased with their latest quarterly results, where higher revenue and profits were reported. All this despite the fact that they’re taking a $1 billion charge to cover the costs of fixing defective Xbox 360 consoles.
But it’s clear to me that the Redmond gorilla [...]

All right, ladies and gentlemen, here’s the good stuff, at least if you’re a Microsoft employee or stockholder: For its fiscal third quarter, ending March 31st, earnings rose to $4.93 billion, or 50 cents a share, compared to $2.98 billion, or 29 cents per share last year. Total sales increased by 32 percent to $14.4 [...]

Consider that Microsoft has billions and billions of dollars in the bank, ready to fight to the death to gain ascendancy in the digital music player arena. As a practical matter, you have to expect that Apple ought to fear that sort of clout. Also consider how Microsoft has been able to dominate the operating [...]