Peter Klein (MS CFO) discussed MS’s improved earnings with investors, and during that meeting revealed:
“…we think of Surface as one part of the overall Windows 8 story. Certainly this quarter it was a contributing factor to the revenue growth in Windows Business. What it does is it highlights some interesting innovation that can happen to demonstrate the power of Windows 8 when tightly integrated hardware and software and new categories of devices, and where, obviously we had some limited distribution this quarter in our stores.
As you know, we are excited about expanding that. So our goal is to continue to build that business to highlight the incredible power of Windows 8 in an interesting set of devices. We are going to expand geographically. We are going to expand the product line up. We are going to expand retail distribution and capacity. So we look forward to continuing the growth of that business…. As I said, we are working very closely with both our chip partners as well as the OEMs to bring the right mix of devices which means, to your point, the right set of touch devices at the right price point depending on the unique needs of the individual. We learned a lot about that and one of things you will see is a greater variety of devices at a bigger variety of price points that meet the differentiated needs of our consumers…. Microsoft has plans to expand geographically. We are going to expand the product line up. We are going to expand retail distribution and capacity.”
- Peter Klein http://seekingalpha.com/article/1132561-microsoft-s-management-discusses-f2q-2013-results-earnings-call-transcript?all=true&find=microsoft
So, the Surface RT and Surface Windows 8 Pro are just the beginning. I suspect that MS is producing a range of devices to match needs and ability to meet a price tag.
In support of that, MS is expanding geographically as well. They’ll be offering the Surface in 13 new countries this coming month.
So, the Surface Pro is coming February 9th, and will run $899 and up: twice the price of the RT. MS hasn’t revealed sales figures on the RT but it has been guesstimated to be about 1 million sold. Sixty million Windows 8 licenses have been sold to OEM’s and the public.
Better, MS has been working with OEM’s to produce their own touchscreen W8 tablets, because Klein felt the OEM’s weren’t doing enough to produce affordable W8 devices. What is clear is MS needs more W8 tablets on the market no matter who’s making them. Without that, devs won’t consider W8 worth the time to develop apps. That would spell the end for W8 based devices… and that would spell catastrophe for MS.
Sources:
http://www.infopackets.com/news/business/microsoft/2013/20130129_microsoft_new_versions_of_the_surface_coming_soon.htm
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1132561-microsoft-s-management-discusses-f2q-2013-results-earnings-call-transcript?all=true&find=microsoft
http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-plans-to-add-to-surface-line-up-with-more-models-better-distribution-7000010328/