Microsoft's profit dipped 11 per cent in the third quarter, falling to $4.39bn (£2.22) from the $4.93bn (£2.49) reported in April last year.

Overall sales remained steady at $14.45bn (£7.31), a minor increase on $14.40bn (£7.29) in 2007.

"Our third-quarter results demonstrate the benefit of our diversified business model,” said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer at Microsoft.

“Our broad span across geographies, product categories and customer segments is a tremendous asset and supports our outlook for double-digit revenue, operating income and earnings per share growth for this fiscal year and also for fiscal year 2009."

Earlier this week Microsoft released Live Mesh, a web service designed to facilitate data sharing across a broad range of devices.