MS reports $900 million loss on Surface RT

[tiziano27]

Apple is also having problem with the iPad. They sold 14.6 million, but most of them are iPad mini.
If the last generation of the "big" iPad is selling about 3-4 million per quarter, I wonder how many tablets has Microsoft in stock to write down $1 billion, and how could they overestimate the demand so much if they had data of the market leader.

The problem of the write down is not only the money, is the harm to the brand. This is poor management.

 

[martinmc78]

Im thinking that MS were expecting a loss to be honest. If you look at the way they launched it, it wasn't like they were shouting from the rooftops and flooding the market. There are still countries where they aren't even available now.

If it was meant to be a tablet to rule them all, day one release would have had them in the majority of countries in as many retailers as possible and that wasn't and still isn't the case. All the RT was ever meant to be was a kick in the backside for the OEM's

Its a loss that im sure will get a large chunk swallowed up by the price cuts and the deals with education. It wont ever be a profitable device but I cant see anyone losing their lunch over it at MS.

 

[ag1986]

Im thinking that MS were expecting a loss to be honest. If you look at the way they launched it, it wasn't like they were shouting from the rooftops and flooding the market. There are still countries where they aren't even available now.

If it was meant to be a tablet to rule them all, day one release would have had them in the majority of countries in as many retailers as possible and that wasn't and still isn't the case. All the RT was ever meant to be was a kick in the backside for the OEM's

Its a loss that im sure will get a large chunk swallowed up by the price cuts and the deals with education. It wont ever be a profitable device but I cant see anyone losing their lunch over it at MS.

Of the magnitude of $900m?!!

I would think the foot was up their own backside, to quote Red Forman.

 

[spaulagain]

http://www.finweb.com/taxes/write-off-vs-write-down.html#axzz2a0LqZJ79


Basically, Microsoft just declared that the Surface RTs (assets) they still have in stock are not valued as high as before. Meaning, instead of this Surface RT over here being worth $500, its worth $400. They reflected this change on their earnings.

This isn't the big deal everyone makes it out to be.

 

[maroonedWP]

Also you can't compare Surface RT sales with iPads yet! Windows RT is new, need tweaks and dev support.

And making a new computer needs some research work. Maybe it's releated with $900m loss.

Second gen Surface with stronger hardware specs and Windows 8.1 will give more realistic results. But we all can concur on bad marketing -very bad-

P.S. English is not my main language

 

[gilezzz]

Guys, Ballmer admitted it himself, both Surface and Windows 8 did worse than expected. I see a couple of you have this "it's totally acceptable" attitude. I don't think it's healthy. I remain of the opinion that the transition between Windows 7 and the new touch interface has been badly managed, scaring away the average windows user.

Promotion, Pricing, Point of sale, Product features: the 4 Ps of marketing. They all seem to have failed, for some reason. Microsoft seems to have taken a step back instead of a step forward. I realize that it is a new "philosophy" and that many in this forum like Windows 8. I like it too, after all.

Seeing Sinofsky leave Microsoft after the launch of the Surface, just this thing alone didn't bode well for the whole thing. Now they have to fix it.

 

[spaulagain]

Guys, Ballmer admitted it himself, both Surface and Windows 8 did worse than expected. I see a couple of you have this "it's totally acceptable" attitude. I don't think it's healthy. I remain of the opinion that the transition between Windows 7 and the new touch interface has been badly managed, scaring away the average windows user.

Promotion, Pricing, Point of sale, Product features: the 4 Ps of marketing. They all seem to have failed, for some reason. Microsoft seems to have taken a step back instead of a step forward. I realize that it is a new "philosophy" and that many in this forum like Windows 8. I like it too, after all.

Seeing Sinofski leave Microsoft after the launch of the Surface, just this thing alone didn't bode well for the whole thing. Now they have to fix it.

Ya we've heard you already. Everyone knows they should have pushed it softer. Its probably why Sinofski is gone. That's why they are back tracking a little bit.

No one said they did it all perfectly, its just not the massive failure some people try to paint it to be. These threads and articles that take numbers and twist them into something they are not to prove the failure are a perfect example.

But Microsoft has had problems in the past where they fail to hit the market running. Xbox anyone? But they always bull through it. And now they are moving faster with updates and I think are truly listening to their customers. So give it a break and move on, watch over the next 3 years as Windows 8 tablets are flooded into schools. As people slowly replace their desktops that died with a tablet/convertible.

Windows 8 is about the future, it jumped the gun a little bit. But maybe that helped get the OEMs to wake up and push the market.

 

[inteller]

Microsoft just needs to sell the remaining Surface inventory to education, they can do a further deep discount but book that write down against education good will charge. Their sales channel problems that caused this write down in the first place have been remedied and the next generation will not have the channel problems that caused this 900 mill write down.

 

[calfee20]

You all might want to check out a blog on zdnet about Windows RT. The comments were very positive for a change. A lot of RT owner wrote in and the haters couldn't get any traction. I see a turn in the attitude toward RT. A little more time and the right prices could turn this around. Here is the link OMG! They

 

[ag1986]

Microsoft just needs to sell the remaining Surface inventory to education, they can do a further deep discount but book that write down against education good will charge. Their sales channel problems that caused this write down in the first place have been remedied and the next generation will not have the channel problems that caused this 900 mill write down.

They're not doing that right as well. See the recent story about all students in LA getting iPads, for example. While I agree that this is a stupid idea, there is actually method to this apparent madness; LA School District apparently chose the iPad because it was the only platform where Pearson would agree to distribute their textbooks and other course content. Unless MS gets that kind of support, this and any other offering meant to compete with the iPad will pretty much be dead in the water.

 

[gilezzz]

Ya we've heard you already..

Everyone knows they should have pushed it softer..

No one said they did it all perfectly..

First of all, please learn some manners.
Second, all of this dealing in absolutes. "All", "No one", "Everyone", "Ever". In front of the shiny armor of your superior knowledge, I can only run and hide in a cave. No, under a rock.

 

[jlzimmerman]

A lot of the problem with Surface, as with WP, as mentioned by critics and haters, is lack of applications. I'm going to copy and paste three comments from an article that sum up what I've read time and time again from different tech forums regarding lack of development for M$ tablets and WP:

The developers have looked and listened about Microsoft's Windows 8 and Metro. And have respond with a great big 'nah'. Me included, I have developed many games for WP7, because it had a good developer relationship with Silver light and XNA. Windows 8 requires another Developer lisence and does not support XNA. So all the developers who told Microsoft so, are sitting back rather bemused at Ballmer's suggestions that we would come running to this platform. There really is no incentive as we share the same feelings about Windows 8 and Microsoft's arrogance.

I am a Windows developer, and I will not write to the WinRT API. I, like many developers, am too alienated by what was done to Silverlight, .NET, and the lame .NET Metro profile. And as a Windows developer, I'm not going to target the small number of Metro users. I'm going to target the vast array of Windows users - from XP on up. Why would it make any economic sense for me to do otherwise?

As a silverlight developer who got knifed in the back by MS, I'm done with native windows clients. I was an MFC ninja, WinForms guru, and pretty competent with Silverlight too. But I'm not gonna do WinRT/metro. It's HTML5 now, baby!

If only one day M$ will realize that its communication skills are absolutely atrocious.

 

[inteller]

so you cherry picked three disgruntled SL/XNA developers and suddenly its everyone?

I recently reinstalled my Surface and discovered that I have over 200 apps on it that I use. Ones I use mind you, not ones that I just got and never installed again. There are not a lack of apps for Windows 8. There are a lack of good developers though.

 

[Michael Alan Goff]

so you cherry picked three disgruntled SL/XNA developers and suddenly its everyone?

I recently reinstalled my Surface and discovered that I have over 200 apps on it that I use. Ones I use mind you, not ones that I just got and never installed again. There are not a lack of apps for Windows 8. There are a lack of good developers though.

You shouldn't have bothered responding. Anyone who types out "M$" isn't exactly the most credible person out there to begin with.

 

[inteller]

true.

 

[allos autos]

You shouldn't have bothered responding. Anyone who types out "M$" isn't exactly the most credible person out there to begin with.

And here I thought I was alone in thinking that about people who type "M$"! Truth be told, I usually just move on to the next post whenever I encounter someone who uses it.