Michel van der Bel, chief operating officer of Microsoft Greater China, has revealed that the company's software retail sales on the Chinese mainland increased by 109% year-on-year in the 2010 fiscal year ended June 2010.
He revealed the statistics at Microsoft China's recent cooperate partner conference. At the same time, he committed that Microsoft will continue to increase investments in the Chinese market and about USD142 million will be invested in the Chinese software outsourcing market.
According to local media reports, the statistics provided by the company show that Microsoft China's hardware sales increased by 41% year-on-year in the 2010 fiscal year; its channels increased by 154% year-on-year; its enterprise resource planning performance increased by 33% year-on-year; and its solutions increased by 33% year-on-year. In addition, it gained over 2,500 new channel partners during the 2010 fiscal year.
The launch of Windows 7 operating system is reportedly the major driver for the growth of Microsoft in the 2010 fiscal year. However, due to the financial crisis, its sales were affected by clients' reduction of investments in the information technology sector.