despite what many consider to be a failed flagship product in its Vista operating system.
I used to hate vista really. Had it from early 2007 up until the summer holldays with various crashes and stuff. Put xp back on there. Now I've just rebuilt my raid 5 and put vista 64 on it. And for some wierd reason I was delighted to have vista back! I don't know why really, cause I instantly got annoyed by having to disable uac and find the folder options in the control panel. But overall I missed it! And over the last half year many of the people I've helped buy laptops have actually asked "if there's a reason they can't just keep vista" instead of asking "if they can get xp instead please". Perhaps all the demanding users already have laptops with xp now ? or perhaps vista has finally broken the ice? Or I may just be plain mad. In any event. With all its faults, vista isn't all that bad. There's still no driver for my 3c905c-tx-m card though. At least not for 64bit. But that's not microsoft's fault.
Anyway. As to the overall earnings of the quarter. I've got a slightly different theory. Ya perhaps xbox bundled with different games makes a difference. But the unsteady weather we experience on most of the globe may well be another reason. If europe has no weather suitable for camping or beach parties, you may as well buy a gaming console and stay indoor...