Redmond, Washington-based tech giant Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is scheduled to report earnings today with consensus analyst estimates predicting earnings per share of $0.75 on revenue of $21.53 billion. 

Areas of focus for earnings predictions included sales figures for the Microsoft Surface, which debuted in late October, and the Windows 8 platform.  Surface numbers are generally predicted to be soft, with 500,000 to 600,000 units forecasted to have moved. While this puts the Surface well behind other tablets like Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) Nexus, Samsung's (PINK:SSNLF) Galaxy, the Kindle (NASDAQ:AMZN), and the iPad (NASDAQ:AAPL), the device has a high profit -- over 50%.

Windows 8 is more complicated.  Late last year, we saw finger-pointing between Microsoft and its device manufactures as to the cause of weaker-than-expected sales numbers. Subsequently the platform gained a foothold in the federal space with a $617 million Department of Defense contract. It also appears to be a casualty of declining PC sales; these are down 6.4% since Q4 2011. Consumer research shows Windows device sales dropped more than 20% in that same period.

My trade: Feb 28 Straddle

Risk: $125 per 1 lot

Reward: unlimited in theory

Breakeven: $26.75 and $29.25