This week, Microsoft released an earnings report for the third quarter of its 2016 fiscal year, and the results demonstrate the continued worth of the Surface brand. Despite declines in Windows OEM revenue and phone revenue, the hybrid seems to be going from strength to strength.
Surface devices helped offset other declines to help revenue under the company’s umbrella of More Personal Computing reach $9.5 billion. That’s a rather impressive accomplishment, given that many were ready to write off the line as a flop when it failed to gain traction in its first couple of years.
The Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book have helped increase Surface revenue by 61 percent, according to a report from WinBeta. Even given the strong marketing push behind the products, and plenty of praise being laid upon the devices in reviews, that’s a very impressive figure.
Last year, Microsoft was largely occupied with the massive launch of Windows 10 — an OS designed to deliver a consistent experience across very different pieces of hardware. Given the continuing success of the Surface line, the hard work that went into creating Windows 10 seem like a very good investment of resources.
Plenty of companies have attempted to seize part of the hybrid market, both as Microsoft was gearing up its efforts and since the Surface line has blossomed. However, at this point it seems clear that no other 2-in-1 device has quite as much of a foothold in terms of mind share or out-and-out sales performance as the Surface does.
The success of the Surface should also illustrate another important point; sometimes a product needs time to mature. It took several hardware iterations and a number of OS tweaks large and small to make the line the behemoth it is today, but it’s a testament to Microsoft’s resolve that the company committed to the range throughout.
