Sales of the Surface are Slowly Improving

[dgstorm]

The good news for Microsoft was that it didn’t have to write off $900 million because of poor Surface sales again last quarter. The trouble, though, is we still don’t have any idea of how well the Surface is really selling, although we do know that it’s selling better than it has in previous quarters. Microsoft said on Thursday that its Surface sales generated $400 million in revenue over the last quarter and that it sold twice as many Surfaces in fiscal Q1 2014 than it sold in the previous quarter.

Microsoft credits the boost in Surface sales to both price cuts for older models and an improved marketing campaign that doesn’t involve breakdancing. While this is all well and good, it doesn’t tell us much about how many Surfaces the company is actually selling and whether it’s making any money from them. As ZDNet notes, Microsoft’s devices and entertainment division last quarter took a big hit and posted an operating loss of $15 million, which marks a year-over-year drop of 171% from the $21 million gain that it posted in fiscal Q1 2013.

Continue Reading @: Microsoft Surface sales rise, actual number still unknown | BGR

 

[oion]

As ZDNet notes, Microsoft’s devices and entertainment division last quarter took a big hit and posted an operating loss of $15 million, which marks a year-over-year drop of 171% from the $21 million gain that it posted in fiscal Q1 2013.

Yup. More detail:

Commercial licensing representing enterprise products like Windows Server and System Center is now by far Microsoft's biggest reporting segment. Its revenue rose 7% to $9.59bn. When combined with cloud-computing services such as its Windows Azure platform and subscriptions to Office 365, commercial revenue rose 10% to $11.2bn.

Devices and consumer licensing revenue, containing revenue from Windows and Windows Phone, fell 7% to $4.34bn.

Hardware sales including Surface rose to $1.49bn from $1.08bn, while other consumer revenue from units such as the Bing search engine and its own video game sales climbed to $1.64bn from $1.40bn.

Microsoft also provided comparisons with its previous segment data, which showed that the elements of its Entertainment & Devices division, which includes the Xbox and Windows Phone business, grew slightly to $2bn while making a loss of $15m, against a $21m profit a year ago.

Overall revenues at what was the Windows division grew by 4%, to $4.58bn, but profits slumped by 21% to $2.24bn. Revenues and profits at the Business division, which includes the Office suite, were flat at $5.99bn and $3.86bn.

The Servers and Tools business, which provides server software, grew strongly by 11% to $5.1bn, and profits by 16.5% to $2bn.

The Online Services division increased its revenues 25% to $872m, and narrowed losses slightly to $321m.

That is a whole lot of different business divisions and numbers, geez.

 

[TeknoBlast]

With all the different divisions, MS must have a massive accounting team.