Great to see Surface results continuing to improve, given the Pro 3 is coming up on almost 1 year on the market. Traditionally, revenue and margins tend to decline as a product nears EOL but it is obvious the Pro 3 and Surface form factor are only gaining traction in the marketplace.
Expect this trend to continue with the Surface 3 (non-Pro) right before the back-to-school period as well as the launch of Windows 10 which will mean a big spike in adoption especially for the enterprise market. A Surface Pro 3 (or 4) Broadwell and/or Core M refresh would be icing on the cake.
I agree. It's kind of interesting to look at the original Surface Pro review and see the comments that everybody had back then. I'm REALLY looking forward to the Skylake based Surface Pro. Whether it's the 4 (I think they'd be crazy not to) or the 5 (if they're crazy), I may just convince my old Pro 1 to last until then.
I'm looking forward to seeing how well an x86 Surface 3 holds up at a lower price point... Though most of that comes down to Atom. It's right around the corner isn't it? Any AT editors wanna hint at whether they have a pre release unit to review? :p
Companies can (and semi-often? do) define their own fiscal years... so yep. Microsoft's fiscal year is a little wonky. I think Nvidia's is like a full year ahead.
I have the same gripe about auto makers and their model years. They should just call a car model by the year it came out, then specify early, late or whatever like Apple does with their stuff.
An "early 2015" Corvette Z06 is much less confusing than calling it MY2016... Mostly because it isn't even 2016 yet.
But still, do people WANT Microsoft products (outside of Xbox-type consumer products), or is it mostly a pragmatic decision?
This is good, but it would be even better for Microsoft (with the same numbers) if people WANTED their products more. Also, Apple getting those kinds of margins with hardware is REALLY impressive - margins that would make almost any tech hardware company drool.
Nevertheless, I agree - these are impressive margins that don't get enough attention sometimes.
Apple is primarily a hardware company while MS is primarily a software company, Your gross margins are your revenue less cost of sales (which for Azure would include running costs for servers etc) but for a laptop would include the BoM. MS should have significantly higher margins than Apple because their cost of sales for most of their products is very low (e.g. Windows cost of sales is... a disc or some bandwidth) while Apple cost of sales is the cost of the materials in a Mac/iPhone/etc.
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chizow - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
Great to see Surface results continuing to improve, given the Pro 3 is coming up on almost 1 year on the market. Traditionally, revenue and margins tend to decline as a product nears EOL but it is obvious the Pro 3 and Surface form factor are only gaining traction in the marketplace.Expect this trend to continue with the Surface 3 (non-Pro) right before the back-to-school period as well as the launch of Windows 10 which will mean a big spike in adoption especially for the enterprise market. A Surface Pro 3 (or 4) Broadwell and/or Core M refresh would be icing on the cake.
Drumsticks - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
I agree. It's kind of interesting to look at the original Surface Pro review and see the comments that everybody had back then. I'm REALLY looking forward to the Skylake based Surface Pro. Whether it's the 4 (I think they'd be crazy not to) or the 5 (if they're crazy), I may just convince my old Pro 1 to last until then.Impulses - Sunday, April 26, 2015 - link
I'm looking forward to seeing how well an x86 Surface 3 holds up at a lower price point... Though most of that comes down to Atom. It's right around the corner isn't it? Any AT editors wanna hint at whether they have a pre release unit to review? :pagentbb007 - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
I get so confused with the fiscal year mumbo jumbo. So FY15 Q3 is actually from Jan. 2015 - March 31 2015?Drumsticks - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
Companies can (and semi-often? do) define their own fiscal years... so yep. Microsoft's fiscal year is a little wonky. I think Nvidia's is like a full year ahead.JlHADJOE - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link
I have the same gripe about auto makers and their model years. They should just call a car model by the year it came out, then specify early, late or whatever like Apple does with their stuff.An "early 2015" Corvette Z06 is much less confusing than calling it MY2016... Mostly because it isn't even 2016 yet.
terminalrecluse - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
Everyone touts apple's margins but MS's > 60% margins are awesome.DCide - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
But still, do people WANT Microsoft products (outside of Xbox-type consumer products), or is it mostly a pragmatic decision?This is good, but it would be even better for Microsoft (with the same numbers) if people WANTED their products more. Also, Apple getting those kinds of margins with hardware is REALLY impressive - margins that would make almost any tech hardware company drool.
Nevertheless, I agree - these are impressive margins that don't get enough attention sometimes.
Lonyo - Thursday, April 30, 2015 - link
Apple is primarily a hardware company while MS is primarily a software company, Your gross margins are your revenue less cost of sales (which for Azure would include running costs for servers etc) but for a laptop would include the BoM. MS should have significantly higher margins than Apple because their cost of sales for most of their products is very low (e.g. Windows cost of sales is... a disc or some bandwidth) while Apple cost of sales is the cost of the materials in a Mac/iPhone/etc.