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Microsoft has reported a very strong fiscal quarter. Some key figures from the results are:

• Revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2007 were $14.40 billion, a 32% increase over the same period of the prior year.
• Net Income for the quarter was $4.93 billion, which resulted in diluted earnings per share of $0.50.
• Microsoft returned $7.72 billion in cash to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends this quarter.

Microsoft shares gained $1.20 a share. or 4.1 percent, to close at $30.30 a share in after hours of trading.

Nicholar Carr has taken the opportunity to return the favor to Paul Graham, who in a recent essay titled “Microsoft is Dead” declared that Microsoft’s prime days as an IT leader are over. Nich has pointed out that Apple’s sales which soared 21% over year earlier levels, rising from $4.4 billion to $5.3 billion soars in comparison to Microsoft’s sales which rose 32% in the quarter, from $10.9 billion to $14.4 billion. Google posted a sales growth of 66% in the quarter, from $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion. The comparison with Google, which is also the new darling of media, is also tilted in favor of Microsoft. According to Nich:

To put it another way, the increase in Microsoft’s sales during the quarter is greater than Google’s total sales – by far ($3.5 billion vs. $2.5 billion).

Microsoft however has got a lot of slack due to the dismal sales of Windows Vista, which has prompted Dell to start shipping Windows XP once again.