Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) reported Thursday that its second-quarter profit jumped 60 percent from the year-earlier period, a sign that IT spending increases are leading the recovery of the broader economy.
Research firm Gartner estimates that global IT spending will total $3.4 trillion this year, 4.6 percent more than was spent in 2009. Forrester Research has an even more optimistic forecast: It says that global IT expenditures will jump 8.9 percent from last year’s figures.
Rapidly rising IT outlays boosted gross domestic product growth in the fourth quarter of 2009, the Commerce Department said on Friday. Annualized GDP growth was 5.7 percent, but business investments in equipment and software rose a scorching 13.3 percent from the preceding quarter. The equipment and software spending growth rate was just 1.5 percent in the third quarter.
Microsoft cited Windows 7 demand as the driver of its better-than-expected second-quarter profit results. More than 60 million licenses of the operating system have been sold since its late-October release – many of those to businesses eager to upgrade from Microsoft’s relatively ancient Windows XP OS.
“We are thrilled by the consumer reception to Windows 7 and by business enthusiasm to adopt Windows 7,” company COO Kevin Turner said.
By Benjamin Foster
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