Microsoft's Surface Revenue Drops By $285M (26%) (computerworld.com)

An anonymous reader quotes Computerworld: Revenue generated by Microsoft's Surface hardware during the March quarter was down 26% from the same period the year before, the company said yesterday as it briefed Wall Street. For the quarter, Surface produced $831 million, some $285 million less than the March quarter of 2016, for the largest year-over-year dollar decline ever... The revenue decline "indicates that the aging product needs a refresh badly," Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates, wrote in a note to clients today. "Price cutting and competing vendors' products will continue to create declines until new product is released, rumored for later this year." Microsoft threw cold water on any significant changes to the Surface line before June, forecasting that the current quarter will also post a revenue decline.

Comments

Not a big deal

[mattmarlowe]

Someone is making a mountain out of a mole hill.

- The Surface Line is more about making windows trendy and sexy in an era of iPads and multifunction laptops.....The surface line has pushed other manufacturers that sell windows machines to innovate and deploy more modern products (even Asus has been experimenting with combining tablet display technology and form factor with windows, Dell has been investing more in their small tablet line).

- Since the whole point of the surface line is to cater to Microsoft's affluent customers and push the state of windows mobile computers, it is more important that Microsoft deliver new products well and perfectly than to delivery frequently. The last several refreshes of the line have gone well....the Surface Studio, Pro 4, and book have all done their job....if there is any complaints, it is that Microsoft pushed releasing the hardware before all the bugs were worked out or before newer hardware could be slimmed down enough in size. And, the book has already gotten a modest boost with the recent performance base release.

So what if sales for the current quarter are trending down as a result of Microsoft taking longer to release a Surface pro 5 or book 2? Isn't waiting until they can deliver properly what we want them to do?

Re:Not a big deal

[StormReaver]

Someone is making a mountain out of a mole hill.

Not likely. We tried the Surface Pro at work. Its performance was so bad, its interoperability with Microsoft's own software so poor, its concept so poorly thought out that our management, largely pro-Microsoft since the beginning of time, threw the piece of shit in the trash.

Literally.

They didn't repurpose it, didn't give it way, didn't recycle it. They literally threw it in the trash and swore against ever using it again.

This plummeting revenue mirrors our experience with it. Shockingly, Microsoft's Surface revenue has dropped by only 285 million. They couldn't pay us to even pretend to use it.

Re:Not a big deal

[Billly Gates]

The surface is far from trash. It's not designed to be a thick powerhouse workstation.

If you need performance get a Surfacebook or an ultrabook like Dells XPS NVME line.

The surface pro has great PC class performance in an ultra portable manner. The i7s and i5s are underclocked and it has aggressive power management. I LOVE mine as I used it for Wireshark at my last job for working on Ethernet ports.

Its portability was great. It has great battery life and best I have ever seen in a portable and I use it as an ebook reader and to play training videos next to my real i7 workstation in my home office.

The surface pro has a real IPS photography grade screen and an excellent keyboard cover and weighs next to nothing to carry around or go on trips. It is the PC Ipad. Use the right tool for the job. Oh and it runs Ubuntu quite well too I may add.

Re:Not a big deal

[Junta]

Speaking as a user of a similar product, interoperability was the wrong word, but I think I see his point. I always use it with the keyboard attached, just like a laptop. When trying to use it like a tablet (touchscreen only), it's a terrible experience that doesn't work well with most software on Windows. Pen input and touch input are only very occasionally useful, so the experience is overwhelmingly dominated by things that essentially need a keyboard and pointer device.

Moving forward, I think I'll stick to cheaper Android tablets for the things a Tablet can do, and traditional laptop for a Windows system when I need Windows (while tablet+keyboard is very similar experience once settled, it's clumsier than a laptop lid to set up, and much more awkward on the lap than a laptop.

Why Upgrade?

[Anonymous Coward]

Its the classical "why upgrade if this one works fine"?

Microsoft did come out with a fine product this time (I run Linux on mine though).

Microsoft has to pull an Apple (make either attractive gimmicks or real hardware improvements) to get people to upgrade.

I just wish Windows wasn't a System-As-A-Service Cloud-Shit OS, I'd be happy to pay extra $100 ( or even $400) and get Windows no strings attached.

Fuck the Cloud business models.

MS Stock is UP, Surface is down

[Proudrooster]

Who care, MS Stock is UP and they beat their first quarter earnings estimate. MS is making money on Office, Azure, Windows, and annual support agreements. The surface was an experiment that some people love but more people hate. I am in the hater camp for both the MS Surface and the new Mac Book Pro. Someone make some decent hardware, please.... pretty please. For full disclosure, the last device was a Lenovo Yoga. The Yoga is 80% to getting to a MacBook Pro. Screen is too shiny, the right shift key is in the wrong spot, and the touchpad has the stupid line for left click on one side and right click on the other. Using a Yoga as a Tablet with Windows 10 is a lackluster user experience, just give me the iPad.

   

Of course

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

"Microsoft's Surface Revenue Drops By $285M (26%)"

Of course, because it's a craptastic piece of shite that costs too much and barely makes a good cutting board. Nobody I've ever known has owned one and I've never seen one used in a business setting in the wild. Not once, even during all the different contracts I spent pretending to work for Microsoft.

Oh, I'm sure they're out there, just like are probably people still clinging to their Zunes, "squirting" songs at each other and clapping like goobers when the transfer actually succeeds.

Mac Sales outstrip Surface 8:1

[TheFakeTimCook]

Q1 2017 Mac Sales: $7.244 BEELION.

Surface Sales: $831 MEELION.

Yep, peeps be lovin' them some Surface kit, LOL!

Re:Mac Sales outstrip Surface 8:1

[thegarbz]

Brand new product vs 2 year old product. Comparing a product (computer) to a product it doesn't compete with (professional tablet). How well are those iPad Pro sales coming along?

Yeah thought so, just more shit-posting from TheFakeTimCook with the VeryRealRealityDistortion that goes with it.

Surface came out in crappy OEM market

[Billly Gates]

Those nice cheap plastic big thick and heavy case with fans in a sea of plastic and +20 programs of malware with mechanical drives that took 4 minutes to boot and had grainy dark terrible screens were what Pcs were in 2011. SHIT.

The surface booted in seconds, thin, ultra portable, great IPS, amazing battery, no shitware.

Outside of Slashdot yes they did make billions for Microsoft and were popular in the x86 line. No really I own one as I used to mock them after being on Slashdot.org assumed they were behind horrible because other people who never used them said so etc. I own one now.

Today we have the Dell XPS ultrabook line, Yoga from Lenovo, and others and a few with great screens and SSDs/NVME so times are changing. Microsoft's goal was to make some money which they still are, but not to let Apple and Android carve out the whole PC market as they focus on COST COST COST savings from the Great Recession which temporarily helped sales but long term was hurting the brand. It served it's purpose.

Also MS is selling its Surface Book which is eating at it's own sales as well.

Repeated without comment

[SuperKendall]

The performance is fantastic. Granted, we have i7 and 16 gigs of ram. But, all MS Office apps work instantly.

Ok, one comment, what was it Slashdot was all afire about with new MacBook Pros last year, hmm...

Re:Make a Surface With Windows 7

[Opportunist]

Yeah, that too. Extend the support for Win7 so people (and more, companies) can finally stop evaluating Linux as a replacement. Win7 EOL is approaching and we're stuck without a reasonable replacement.