Without actually reading anything or doing any research, I'm going to guess the decline of the dollar is boosting earnings. The list price of Office hasn't changed overseas, and a lot of that money gets changed to dollars and shipped back to Redmond.
Well true, but the same can be said about Apple, Google etc. They all have significant revenue streams outside the US. The reason most people try to explain away Microsoft's ridiculous profits is because they don't like the company.
For Microsoft, the key in my opinion, is their next version of the OS. Vista blows and is selling simply through computer sales. They need to rebuild their OS from the ground up to be secure, fast and user friendly.
