When Microsoft first unveiled the Surface tablet back in 2012, many were impressed. Not only were they impressed with the design, but they were impressed with the quality of the tablet’s construction, and the concept as well. Unfortunately the Surface tablets did take quite take as Microsoft had hoped and fast forward to 2014, it has been reported to Microsoft is still continuing to lose money for every Surface tablet they sell.
This is according from a report from ComputerWorld who has suggested that Microsoft has been losing $300 million and counting for the Surface in the past nine months. The data they’re basing it on was taken from a 10-Q filed by Microsoft with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
They found that in the past nine months, Microsoft had reportedly spent $2.1 billion on the Surface tablets but only managed to gain $1.8 billion in terms of revenue, so based on simple maths, it is presumed that the $300 million difference is the loss from which Microsoft made from selling Surface tablets.
This is not the first time we’ve heard how the Surface tablets are doing badly. In 2013 Microsoft decided to give the Surface tablets price cuts in hopes that its lower price would prove to be a more attractive option for customers. Unfortunately it was later reported that it did not help much as Microsoft had been sitting on an estimated $1 billion in unsold Surface inventory.
The Surface 2 tablets were an improvement over their predecessors although if recent numbers are anything to go by, the iPad is still dominating the US market, with Microsoft’s Windows-based tablets only taking up a 6% global tablet share.