Microsoft questioned despite profit return - Telegraph.co.uk

Although it has belatedly made efforts to adapt this for tablets, with Windows 8, and to launch its own tablet device, the Surface, these attempts have faced some criticism. However, a radical reorganisation of the company, announced on Thursday, will halve the number of engineering divisions to four, with each one focused on hardware or web services so that Microsoft's product developers can speed up the delivery of new hardware products to the market.

Investors in the company are expected to call on Mr Ballmer to explain in more detail how he expects the shake-up to accelerate flagging sales, and put Microsoft back on the same kind of footing as Apple, the technology giant which it once dwarfed.

But the Seattle business will not be exclusively focused on its own revival. It will also be paying close attention to Google, which is also set to publish results on Thursday.

The web search giant is expected to report a jump in operating profits to around $3.95bn, up nearly a quarter on its performance in the same period last year.

Such an increase would mark a sharp acceleration of growth at the California-based business, which saw operating profits climb 11pc to $3.2bn in the same period in 2012.

However, analysts and investors are braced for a slowdown in sales at Google, dragged down by Motorola Mobility, the mobile phone giant which it acquired last year in order to bolster its artillery of patents. Google is forecast to deliver $11.33bn in revenues, down from $12.21bn in the same period in 2012.

Anthony DiClemente, an analyst at Barclays, whose forecasts come in slightly lower than the consensus expectations, said Motorola Mobility had been "a drag on Google's fundamentals", but was upbeat about the outlook for the second half of the year.

"We believe fundamentals may improve in late 2013 and into 2014 as Motorola's legacy pipeline is unwound and the division begins producing newer handsets, boosting revenue," he said.

Investors will also be watching closely to see how Google's advertising income is holding up as more and more users switch away from traditional desktops to tablet devices and smartphones.

Investors had worried that Google was receiving less money each time someone clicks on an advert via their tablet or smartphone, than when they access the same advert on a PC.