If there is one thing you can say about the Surface tablets, is that ever since launch, Microsoft has been mum on how they were selling, what kind of numbers they were bringing in, and all that good stuff.
This was a gap that analysts tried their best (or in some cases worst) to fill up.
And even up until now, the technology titan has not released any sales figures for either the Surface RT or the Surface Pro. The RT was launched back in October 2012, while the Pro version of the slate actually started selling in February 2013.
Well, started selling does not tell the whole story — both tablets suffered from varying supply and availability issues at launch, which most of you may already be aware of by now.
But Microsoft has finally offered some public information about how much money the Surface tablets have brought in from launch until the end of the company’s fiscal year (June 30).
This is as close as we will get for official numbers on the Surface slates for now, folks.
So then, even with a scattered and scampered launch, marketing and promotion that was all over the place for quite some time, lack of international availability, and all such factors, Microsoft has managed to sell $853 million worth of Surface tablets, RT and Pro.
Redmond revealed these revenue numbers in a financial disclosure sent to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. There is no breakdown of what percentage of these sales the Surface RT managed, and what sorts of numbers the Surface Pro pulled in, but that’s that.
Microsoft, however, took a $900 million one-time charge in its last quarterly financial report due to its new price cut of $150 on the Surface RT. The company launched this discount campaign in mid-July.
