Microsoft released a glowing analysis of its Q2 results earlier yesterday.  The report focused heavily on strong sales and takes a rather self-congratulatory tone, which may sound eerily familiar to some recent Macworld attendees.

Microsoft describes sales as "robust" leading to revenue increasing to $16.37 billion, a 30% growth.  However, the large increase in revenue Microsoft acknowledges is due in part to $1.64 billion in deferred revenue from the second to third fiscal quarter of 2007.  Without the deferral the revenue increase would be a more modest, but still respectable, 15% increase.

Despite somewhat sour opinions of the operating system around the Internet, Microsoft's Windows Vista is clearly not hurting for sales.  A total of 100 million Windows Vista licenses have been sold.  Exactly where this places Windows Vista when compared to competitor Apple's OS X is unknown.  According to Apple, 2 million copies of Leopard were sold in the first week, roughly matching Vista's initial sales pace by some estimates. 

Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms and Services Division at Microsoft, expressed happiness with Vista, stating, "We are pleased with the progress of Windows Vista in the market.  We’ve hit our stride with partners and customers and are looking forward to the release of our first service pack later this quarter."

Microsoft also pointed in the report to the positive progress in its Zune business, including the release of new flash based iPod shuffle/nano competitors, though it declined to list specific sales figures.  Microsoft also reported that the total number of Xbox 360s jumped to 17.7 million worldwide, up 70% from the previous year.

Microsoft recently faced rough PR and legal times, as it is under investigation again by the EU after already surrendering one major fine.  Further, new reports allege that Microsoft skipped quality testing and knowingly released defective Xbox 360 hardware to beat Sony to launch.