Microsoft earns more with Azure but Lumia delivery halves

Microsoft’s revenue from Azure cloud services has risen sharply in recent months. That is what the company says in the presentation of the quarterly figures. Deliveries of the Surface line rose, those of Lumia smartphones halved.

Microsoft reports 140 percent growth in revenue from Azure, making it the largest grower in the group. Premium services revenue on Azure grew 300 percent from the same period a year ago.

With the release of the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book, Microsoft posted record sales on the Surface line. The company did not mention how many copies have been sold, but recorded a turnover of 1.35 billion dollars, currently converted around 1.24 billion euros.

It was less on mobile. The number of Lumias delivered fell by 57 percent. Where in the last months of 2014 Microsoft delivered 10.5 million Lumias, there were 4.5 million in the past period. Although the Lumia 950, 950 XL and 550 were released during that period, they were only on sale in the last weeks of the quarter. Microsoft expects the decline in smartphone deliveries to continue in the coming months.

The company does not disclose how many game consoles it has sold. It did mention a 30 percent increase in active Xbox Live users from a year ago. There are now 48 million. The number of installations on Windows 10 is now at two hundred million, a number that Microsoft already announced a few weeks ago.

Microsoft had total revenues of $23.8 billion, with operating income of $6 billion. That is overall less than in the same period a year ago.