As consumers and business buyers held off on new desktop licenses, waiting for the new Vista and Office 2007, it was server sales that drove Microsoft's increases in revenue and earnings. Revenue from server software made up for slower growth in sales of Office and Windows software. Customers put off purchases as they waited for the delayed Vista operating system and a new version of Office.

"The server side is strong but the quarter would have been a lot better had they been able to ship Windows Vista," said Matt Kelmon, a fund manager at Kelmoore Investment. "They're just taking market share in server and so they have had inroads there." http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/26/yourmoney/msft.php As Bill Hartnett, an industry manager for financial services at Microsoft noted, server sales grew by 17 percent, and that is already a huge part of the company's busness, so it isn't growing from a small base. "Adopton is kicking in." Proof that the enterprise understands Microsoft is ready for mission critical apps. Bloomberg included Charles D Bona, an analysts with Sanford Ce. Benstein & Co. in San Fancisco in its notable quotes of the week:  ``The server business has been going gangbusters for this company for several years now. It's a hidden gem. It's a real growth engine for the company.''