In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.

Stock Chart for Microsoft Corp (MSFT) 
  
 Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)’s Windows sales slumped last quarter as the iPad crimped demand for consumer laptops, marking the first time in 20 years that the software maker reported a smaller quarterly profit than Apple Inc. (AAPL) 
  
 Revenue in Microsoft’s Windows division fell 4.4 percent to $4.45 billion, the Redmond, Washington-based company said yesterday in a statement. That missed the $4.6 billion average prediction of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Net income was $5.23 billion, eclipsed by the $5.99 billion reported by Apple last quarter. 
  
 Consumer PC shipments dropped 8 percent in the quarter, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said. Netbooks -- the cheap laptops that became popular during the recession -- plunged 40 percent, partially because of defections to tablet computers, he said. The decline overshadowed a better-than- anticipated performance from Microsoft’s Office unit and increased PC demand from corporations. 
  
 “You have to live underneath a rock not to know that the iPad has taken share from the netbook,” said Pat Becker Jr., principal of Portland, Oregon-based Becker Capital Management Inc., which holds Microsoft shares as part of its $2.5 billion in assets. “It’s a problem on the consumer side, and that’s a market where Microsoft continues to give up territory to Apple.” 
  
 Microsoft fell 79 cents, or 3 percent, to $25.92 at 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The shares have declined 7.1 percent this year. 
  
 Less Than Apple 
  
 Net income rose to 61 cents a share, from $4.01 billion, or 45 cents, Microsoft said yesterday. Excluding a 5-cent per-share tax benefit, earnings matched the 56-cent average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. 
  
 The results underscore the ascendance of Apple, which surpassed Microsoft as the world’s most valuable technology company last May. The last time Apple’s profit was bigger than Microsoft’s was 1991. 
  
 While PC shipments to corporate customers rose 9 percent, tablet competition accounted for some of the sluggishness in consumer sales, Klein said in an interview. 
  
 “It’s fair to say tablet is some of that,” he said. 
  
 Total PC sales declined 2 percent last quarter, Microsoft said. That the Windows business performed even worse adds to the concern over Microsoft’s performance, said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland. 
  
 Office Sales 
  
 “That’s suggesting some market share loss, some real deterioration,” said Barnicle, who rates Microsoft’s stock “sector perform.” 
  
 Microsoft’s overall sales rose to $16.4 billion, compared with the $16.2 billion average projection. That reflected demand for such products as Office business-productivity software and programs for servers -- the computers that run networks. 
  
 “We are seeing businesses invest in technology,” Klein said. “They are buying hardware and they are buying Microsoft software.” Microsoft expects corporate PC shipments to outpace consumer sales for the rest of the year. 
  
 Sales in the business division, which sells Office software and is the company’s biggest unit, rose 21 percent to $5.25 billion, compared with the $4.9 billion average estimate of analysts. Revenue at the Server and Tools unit was $4.1 billion, compared with the $4 billion analysts projected. 
  
 “There is a tale of two cities going on here,” said Brent Thill, an analyst at UBS AG in San Francisco, who recommends buying Microsoft shares. “You have consumers who say an iPad is good enough for consuming data, but for the enterprise side, those enterprises are continuing with Microsoft. The thing that has hurt Microsoft is that tablets are no question the must-have item for consumers.” 
  
 To contact the reporter on this story: Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.net 
  
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net ||||| Microsoft's quarterly profits and revenues were eclipsed for the first time in 20 years by Apple as a slowdown in the PC business and continuing huge losses in its search division held it back. 
  
 Though the company reported net income up 30% to $5.2bn (£3.1bn) from $4bn, and revenues up 13% to $16.4bn from $14.5bn, both were smaller than figures released by Apple last week showing $6bn profits on revenues of $24.7bn. 
  
 The overshadowing of Microsoft's financial might by Apple will be seen by some as marking a key moment in the industry, as Apple's iPad tablet computer and iPhone smartphone have both become important sources of revenue even while its desktop and laptop computers – the areas where Microsoft dominates – have become less important. Microsoft overtook Apple in profits in 1991, and revenues in 1995. But since the launch of the iPhone in 2007 and then the iPad in 2010, Apple has grown rapidly, and its market capitalisation overtook Microsoft's in May 2010. 
  
 Microsoft's dependence on the PC industry, which recorded a surprise year-on-year fall in sales during the first quarter, means that its profits from Windows licences, which generate roughly half its profits, are vulnerable to any slowdown. 
  
 Analysts believe that the iPad and other tablets using Google's Android software are eating into Microsoft's PC business, and have not seen any convincing response from the Redmond-based giant. Sales of its Windows Phone have been unimpressive so far, and are not mentioned in the formal earnings announcement. 
  
 Trip Chowdhry, managing director of Global Equities Research, said: "This is the best they can do in the industry they have. The quarter was almost in line. There is nothing to get excited about. But 2012 is going to be much weaker versus 2011. It's all about innovation and the pace of innovation. The question to ask is: is there any product line in Microsoft that they are not playing catch-up on?" 
  
 Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial, said: "The concern is PC markets are being disrupted. There's some validity [in that]. 
  
 "But it's also overblown when you factor in that Windows 7 is the fastest-selling OS in history. There was $4.5bn in [Windows] revenue. You've got to put it in perspective. Tablets are not going to replace PCs. OK, they are definitely eating into laptops in some markets. But Microsoft will be in that game. You're going to see Windows 8 come in September, that's going to help offset the tablet concerns, because it's going to run tablets." 
  
 Channing Smith of Capital Advisors Growth Fund said: "It's hard to get excited about the Microsoft story when there are more exciting growth opportunities in the marketplace. With that said, Microsoft to me is no longer a growth stock but it is a very attractive value stock." 
  
 Search remains a source of financial pain for the company. Its Online Service division, which contains its search engine Bing, recorded a loss of $726m (previously $709m) on revenues of just $648m, up from $566m last year. By contrast Google's latest quarterly results showed a profit of $2.3bn on revenues of $8.5bn – more than 10 times larger than Bing and its properties. 
  
 The only other sources of encouragement were higher sales of Office, the company's other established monopoly, which generated profits of $3.1bn on revenues of $5.2bn, and the Kinect games add-on, the fastest-selling consumer electronics device ever, which contributed to a 60% growth in its Entertainment and Devices division, which includes the Xbox 360 console. 
  
 • RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, slashed its quarterly profit and revenue forecasts from the already lower numbers given at its last quarterly results. It said phone shipments would be closer to 13.5m, and that more would be cheaper models. It cut its earnings forecast by 12%. |||||
Apple's profits have outstripped Microsoft's for the first time since Extreme was topping the charts and Mark Zuckerberg was in second grade. Microsoft's revenue and profits were actually up last quarter, but Apple managed to move ahead for the first time in 20 years with a $6 billion profit on revenues of $24.7 billion, reports the Guardian, which believes this may mark a key moment in the industry. Analysts say Microsoft has been stung by a steep drop in laptop sales as large numbers of consumers opt to buy tablet computers, especially iPads, instead. "You have to live underneath a rock not to know that the iPad has taken share from the netbook,” the chief of a major Microsoft shareholder tells Bloomberg. “It’s a problem on the consumer side, and that’s a market where Microsoft continues to give up territory to Apple.”