Microsoft said Thursday that it doubled its quarter-over-quarter Surface tablet sales in the final three-month period of 2013 and has moved nearly 4 million Xbox One consoles since introducing the next-generation gaming system just before the holiday season.

The software giant said it generated $893 million in revenue from shipments of Surface devices in its fiscal second quarter, up from $400 million in the previous quarter, while also reporting that combined sales of Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles for the holiday quarter totaled 7.4 units.

Microsoft reported its fiscal second quarter earnings on Thursday afternoon, notifying investors that it enjoyed revenue of $24.5 billion for the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2013, with gross margin of $16.2 billion, operating income of nearly $8 billion, net income of $6.6 billion, and diluted earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter of $0.78 per share.

?wmode=transparent"Our commercial segment continues to outpace the overall market, and our devices and consumer segment had a great holiday quarter," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement. "The investments we are making in devices and services that deliver high-value experiences to our customers, and the work we are doing with our partners, are driving strong results and positioning us well for long-term growth."

Redmond's best narrative for the quarter appeared to be in its devices and consumer business, with revenue growing sequentially in that segment by 13 percent to $11.91 billion. Some of that growth was likely seasonal in the holiday quarter. Regardless, Microsoft is surely feeling positive about the doubling of sales associated with its Surface line regardless of season, seeing as how the company has been fighting for some time to gain consumer acceptance for its products which compete directly with Apple's iPad and slates running Google's Android operating system.

Microsoft's other bread-and-butter businesses, namely its Windows OEM unit, were a different story in the quarter. Windows OEM revenue slipped 3 percent quarter-over-quarter, the company said, due to "continued softness in the consumer PC market."

Still, the company grew its commercial revenue by 10 percent to $12.7 billion and also enjoyed final-quarter gains in its SQL Server and System Center businesses, as well as in commercial cloud services revenue and with the Office 365 and Azure offerings.

"We significantly outpaced enterprise IT spend as we continue to take share from our competitors by delivering the devices and services our customers need as they transition to the cloud," said chief operating officer Kevin Turner. "Our commercial cloud services revenue grew more than 100 percent year-over-year, as customers are embracing Office 365, Azure, and Dynamics CRM Online, and making long-term commitments to the Microsoft platform."

Microsoft did not reveal its chosen successor to Ballmer, who is stepping down as the second chief executive in the company' s history later this year. In December, the Microsoft board of directors offered an update to its search process, saying it has whittled down a candidate list of more than 100 to about 20 possible replacements, "all extremely impressive in their own right."

The board is scheduled to name Ballmer's replacement before August.

For more, check out PCMag Live in the video below, which discusses Microsoft Surface sales.

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