After year s of pouring money into Windows Vista and Office 2007, the work has finally paid off with Microsoft reporting record profits for the quarter ending 31st March 2007. Microsoft's closest rival, Apple Inc, yesterday reported that it managed a turnover of $5.26 billion and profits of $770 million from software and hardware sales, but Microsoft has maintained its dominance with revenue of $14.40 billion and a net income of $6.59 billion. Much of this has been thanks to strong sales of the company's newly released OS, with Kevin Turner (Microsoft's chief operating officer) commenting "This quarter marked the consumer launches of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and we are delighted with the positive customer response these products have received. We continue to deliver on our compelling product cycle and build upon strong field sales and marketing execution in order to drive revenue and profit growth for the company." Read on for the full press release.

Apple Inc has seen its profits surge an impressive 88% for the second quarter of the fiscal year compared to earnings this time last year. In the second quarter of last year (the second quarter of the fiscal year ends on 31st March) Apple managed a turnover of $4.36 billion giving it a profit of $410 million. However, this year it managed a revenue of $5.26 billion and profits of $770 million, which equates to $0.87 per diluted share. During the quarter Apple shipped 1,517,000 Macs and 10,549,000 iPods - a growth of 36% and 24% respectively compared to a year ago. Read on for Apple's press release.