Microsoft gets hardware foothold as Surface, Lumia sales jump - CNET

The company's fiscal second-quarter earnings posted Monday indicate that its consumer businesses are consistently growing. Its Lumia phones are selling better than ever and Surface, its tablet line, is officially a billion-dollar business. Though these divisions are still nowhere near as large as Microsoft's software, servers and Internet services divisions, the numbers represent a promising start.

Though those core software businesses are still the company's bread and butter, Microsoft is very much still in a significant transition period. CEO Satya Nadella, who took over nearly a year ago, now has a twofold mission: to have Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows 10, run across as many devices and screens as possible, and to make consumers love Windows again, not just use it out of necessity. For Nadella, that means pushing Windows as aggressively into the hands of consumers as it has in the corporate realm.

Microsoft gets hardware foothold as Surface, Lumia sales jump - CNET