Microsofts results for its second quarter 2012 offered little in the realm of the unexpected: Xbox 360 and Kinect hands-free controllers continued to sell at a steady clip, as did business software, while Windows revenue dipped on softening PC sales. All told, quarterly revenue topped $20.89 billion, a year-over-year increase of 5 percent, with net income of $6.62 billion.

In a Jan. 19 statement released ahead of its quarterly earnings call, Microsoft reported that some 18 million Kinect sensors have been sold to date, firmly establishing the devicewhich will soon spread beyond the gaming realm to Windowsas a solid hit. Office 2010 has managed to sell some 200 million licenses in the 18 months since its launch, the company added, while Windows 8 licenses topped 525 million sold.  

Microsoft has also been pushing several cloud-based productivity initiatives, including Office 365. Today, more than 100,000 businesses have made the commitment to our online services, Peter Klein, Microsofts chief financial officer, told media and analysts listening on the call.

However, those cloud initiatives have yet to generate revenue on the scale of Microsofts traditional software such as Windows and Office.

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