Plodding PC sales weigh down Microsoft profit

SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp is starting the new year much as it did the one just ended — grappling with weak computer sales tearing a hole in its core Windows business, while it gropes its way slowly into the faster-growing mobile phone and Tablet markets.

Shares of the world’s largest software company are pretty much where they were a year ago too, and few expect much to change after the latest results are announced on Thursday.