But, as we saw for the last few quarters, Microsoft's mobile business is going nowhere fast, falling another 71 percent from the previous year. That led to a four percent earnings decline for Microsoft's More Personal Computing division. Otherwise, that group remains a strong area for Microsoft, with Surface revenue up 9 percent, Xbox Live monthly active users growing 33 percent (reaching over 49 million) and Windows non-Pro revenue to manufacturers growing 27 percent.

Microsoft's overall revenue for the quarter came in at $20.6 billion, with profits of $3.1 billion. That's down from the $22.1 billion in earnings the company reported a year ago. It's also projecting that its annualized revenue run rate for cloud products (a calculation for the next year's performance) will be more than $12.1 billion.

The earnings report is particularly interesting for Microsoft, as it's the first since its $26 billion LinkedIn purchase. That was Microsoft's largest deal ever, and despite making plenty of synergistic sense, many considered it a curious move for a company that's trying to double-down on its productive relevance.