Microsoft Continues To Lose Money With Each Surface Tablet It Sells 179
DroidJason1 writes: "Revealed from a 10-Q filed by Microsoft with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Microsoft has been losing $300 million and counting for the Surface in the last nine months. Data from Strategy Analytics has also revealed that Microsoft's Windows-powered tablets now own a 6% global tablet share, in Q1 of 2014. Android, on the other hand, remains at the top with a 66% global share. Apple's iOS fell to 28%."
Share of warehouse inventory not good metric (Score:2, Insightful)
We already know the Androd tablet "market share" is a fantasy since companies like Samsung provided fake sales info [tablet-news.com], and there's no reason to think they are not still doing so.
If Android tablet sales are so far ahead, why are Android tablet use figures so far behind [chitika.com]?
Re:Slow follower (Score:0, Insightful)
The surface is a full computer, unlike the Android toy and iPad content consumption type of devices.
I'd actually argue that the Android and iPad tablets aren't even in the same market. The Android stuff is implicitly designed to be cheap and affordable, but you'll be throwing them away every year unless you're smart enough to know how to put unofficial firmware on them, where as the iPad is going to last until the technology changes too much and then it won't get any new firmware or software. Meanwhile the surface (unlike surface RT) you can use it until the battery becomes useless and then you throw it away OR plug it into a power brick and just use it like a desktop.
The way things are moving, is that the "desktop" will be gone from all but high-end gaming/workstation systems, at some point you will only be able to build a gaming rig from the same parts as a workstation/server, as the desktop computer will be gone, replaced with ultrabook/surface/all-in-one devices. Apple already knows this. That's why you never ever saw an apple desktop, They were either laptops/laptop-all-in-one(iMac) or workstations.
The thing that kinda makes me laugh and cry at the same time is that the Xbone and the PS4 are basically substandard PC's, but they will be the baseline for all new games, which means 90% of the crap desktops and laptops sold (anything that uses Intel's video parts) will need to be thrown away if they are being used as gaming machines. People will just not play those games on the PC, and won't upgrade their desktops/laptops when they can buy a PS4 for cheap.
Re:Slow follower (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Android tablets not good compared to phones (Score:4, Insightful)
Try a 2013 Nexus 7? WRT software, I find it very odd that even today iOS doesn't support multiple/restricted profiles. They're not that useful in a phone but make perfect sense on a tablet - I can "sandbox" the tablet for my daughter to be kid-friendly (and deny access to a browser, for now).
No point in trying to talk sense to him. He's a died in the wool fanboy (you see SuperKendall on all of these threads trying to find any reason, no matter how vauge or far reaching to try and disprove anything slightly critical of Apple).
I highly doubt he's used an Android tablet in his life. Basically he has to recycle any old myth no matter how many times it's been disproved.
But that aside most Ipad users who've tried my Nexus 7 (2013) have commented that it's faster than an Ipad, even those who are fanboys have been begrudgingly forced to admit it's a great tablet. Software, well seeing as you use your browser for everything these days it doesn't matter but the quality of software on Android these days matches or superceeds that of Apple.
People will choose what they like, but some people like our friend Mr SuperKendall cant accept that.
Me, I like my Nexus 7 but I'd rather sell it to others on the good points of having one, rather than the bad points of the competition.
Re: Slow follower (Score:3, Insightful)
Show me a tablet with 8GB of RAM running Eclipse and the Android SDK and I'll believe you.
People are choosing Android to get away from the Windows complexity and bloat. Why replicate it on a compact device?
AIDE, DeuterIDE etc are made for the job, and in the case of AIDE are Eclipse-compatible. Choose whichever suits your purpose.
Surface 2 Pro Observations (Score:2, Insightful)
I've been using WinTabs for many years. I've found my Surface Pro 2 to be very useful to me for the past few weeks I've owned it. As for the RT models, no way would I own one. I still love my iPad, but Apple really needs to make an iPad Pro with OS X available to the market.
I've actually found that Windows 8.1 makes way more sense from a tablet interface too. I remember reading that somewhere along the line. My Surface Pro 2 is beginning to replace my laptop except for the times when I need Win 7, a real keyboard, or an Ethernet port.
Like it or not, I believe Microsoft has created a very decent piece of hardware in the Surface Pro 2. It even makes me like Windows 8 a good bit more too as it makes sense in that context. I'm sure the same thing applies to other makers WinTabs too. I like my iPad and even appreciate the jail aspect of it which I believe benefits the average non-technical user. However, I need a full featured OS on any tablet I use, and the Surface Pro 2 delivers for me.
Re:People aren't using Androids (Score:4, Insightful)
I think I saw somewhere that the Android USB dongles also identify as tablets for these analytic purposes - I wonder how much those things skew the numbers.
Plus, Strategy Analytics is a company that is paid to write these reports by vested interests. Often, their "data" doesn't stand the test of time.
Re:Typical MSFT mistake (Score:5, Insightful)
Market share != profit share. Market share isn't terribly important at all unless it becomes so low that you have trouble achieving economy of scale or attracting developers. Neither of those things has happened, so Apple continues to be insanely profitable for a hardware maker.