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Microsoft’s second quarter earnings report released Monday had a few bright spots, including rising sales in mobile devices and cloud services. Overall, the company’s sales were up 8% in the quarter ending Dec. 31, though costs related to acquisitions and layoffs meant profits were down 10.6% to $5.9 billion.上周，微软公司公布了第二财季收益报告，其中经常出现了一些亮点，比如移动设备和云服务的销售额大大下降。虽然由于并购和裁员影响，微软公司的利润下降了10.6%，降到59亿美元，但该公司截至2014年12月31日的季度销售额总体还是构建了8%的快速增长。Despite the company’s good sales numbers, revenue from copies of its Windows operating system installed on new computers, long a reliable source of cash, were down 13% year-over-year. Why?尽管微软公司销售额涨势喜人，新的电脑加装Windows操作系统所带给的收益却同比上升了13%，要告诉它仍然是个可信的收益来源。

为什么不会经常出现这种情况？First, the consumer PC market has been either slipping or stagnant for years, meaning there’s fewer devices capable of running Microsoft’s PC operating system being sold.首先，个人电脑市场近年来仍然萧条，也就是说，运营微软公司操作系统的个人电脑销量增加了。But there’s another reason that’s far more under Microsoft’s control.但还有另一个原因是微软公司几乎无法掌控的。

Back at the end of 2013, Microsoft MSFT -9.25% was on the verge of ending technical support for Windows XP business customers. That convinced lots of IT and accounting departments it was finally time to upgrade from the decade-plus-old operating system, driving sales of Microsoft’s newer OSes, like Windows 8.到2013年年底，微软公司就早已基本不为Windows XP的商务用户获取技术支持了。许多公司的IT部门和财务部门因此虔诚，再一是时候升级这款有数十多年历史的旧系统了，而这将提升微软公司新的系统如Windows 8的销量。

However, that XP end-of-life phenomenon wasn’t around to drive sales last year, helping explain Windows’ poor year-over-year numbers. (Microsoft also said cheaper copies of Windows it sold to academic buyers cut into the category’s revenue).然而，XP的寿终正寝未在去年夹住Windows系统的销量，这就说明了Windows年度同比销量展现出下滑的原因。（微软公司还回应，出售给学术机构的Windows系统售价较低，也影响了该类别的收益。）It’s safe to expect Windows to be less of a moneymaker for Microsoft in the future. Last week, the company announced that its upcoming iteration of the operating system, Windows 10, will be a free upgradefor users with older versions already installed. That’s a consumer-friendly move that should help drive adoption rates, but it will eat even further into Windows’ revenue figures. Still, if Microsoft continues to be successful in mobile and cloud services, that could more than make up for the free upgrade.我们可以预计，Windows在未来有可能仍然是微软公司的摇钱树。该公司近期宣告，将要面世的下一代操作系统Windows 10将为旧版本的Windows用户获取免费升级。

这项措施对消费者十分友好关系，应当不会提升该系统的采用率，但它不会更进一步减少Windows的收益。不过，如果微软公司能在移动和云服务上之后高歌猛进，由此产生的收益将不足以填补免费升级的损失。

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