Microsoft’s Profits Slide on Mobile, but Its Cloud Flourishes

Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s new chief executive, has said the two most important trends for the company’s future are mobile and cloud computing. But it is doing much better in cloud computing than in mobile.

In what amounted to its first financial report card since acquiring the mobile business of Nokia, the Finnish handset maker, Microsoft said its overall profits slid because the Nokia business continued to lose money. At the same time, though, Microsoft’s revenues got a big boost from the sales of mobile phones. Microsoft will continue to face a challenge in creating mobile products that excite people, even as it cuts costs to prevent Nokia from dragging the company’s overall profits down.