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If I remember correctly, the XBox was operating at a loss at the beginning. I think it was more than expected that it would take a few years to break into the m
by qzcx 11y ago
If I remember correctly, the XBox was operating at a loss at the beginning. I think it was more than expected that it would take a few years to break into the market.
- ucaetano 11y agoThere's a major difference between operating at a loss while selling 1.3 million units in 3 months (more than the PS2, PS3, Wii) as the XBOX did and having a product that absolutely nobody is buying as the Surface.
- randomhunt 11y agoI travel on a train for a medium length journey 2-4 times a week. In the last 12 months I've noticed that the transition from never seeing a Surface (Pro) to seeing 5-10% of tablets being a Surface (Pro). The vast majority are iPads still but its interesting that Surface has made such inroads. Based on what I see the main reason is the combination of the keyboard and Outlook.
- Someone1234 11y agoI'd also tack on: It is about enterprise appeal. A lot of people forget that IT departments in medium to large companies need to be able to remotely manage equipment, Macs are "annoying" and iPads are damn near un-manage-able. So while a lot of middle managers outside of IT think that iPads are "cool" and push for them, they get a lot of push back from IT due to their impracticality and the amount of time/resources it would take to manage. A Surface Pro has none of these issues. It is a standard Windows 10 PC which can be managed via System Center/AD/GPO/etc, so they're non-effort machines for enterprise/IT. So that, I suspect, is why you're seeing so many so quickly. Internally non-IT management wants a "tablet" and the IT department is deflecting from iPads onto Surface Pros because it is in their best interests to do so.
- djloche 11y agoThere's a major difference between "a product that absolutely nobody is buying" and the revenue reported in the eight most recent quarters: $672MM (Q1-2016), $888MM (Q4-2015), $713MM (Q3-2015), $1100MM (Q2-2015), $908MM (Q1-2015), $409MM (Q4-2014), $500MM (Q3-2014), $893MM (Q2-2014). (to note, Q2 is their oct-nov-dec quarter) ~$6Billion in revenue means absolutely someone is buying Surface products.
- ucaetano 11y agoQ1-2016? Are you from the future? And for comparison, the original XBox sold $300M. In the first 3 weeks.
- djloche 11y agohttps://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/PressReleaseAndWebcast/FY16/Q1/default.aspx https://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Ear... In case you weren't aware, Microsoft released their 2016-Q1 earnings recently.
- ucaetano 11y agoGood point, I should have paid more attention to the dates, not just the numbers :)
- gamblor956 11y agoThe year (2016) refers to the calendar year in which Microsoft's fiscal year ends (Jun 2016). Many, but not all, companies use a standard fiscal year of Jul-Jun rather than a calendar year of Jan-Dec for financial reporting and tax purposes. Thus, Q1 2016 means the quarter ending Sep 30, 2015, for Microsoft's fiscal year ending Jun 30, 2016 (which began Jul 1, 2015).