Microsoft's Surface division grows in strong Q2

[Scorpus]

Microsoft's financial results for the second quarter of their fiscal 2016 (Q4 of calendar 2015) are in, and the company has reported GAAP revenues of $23.8 billion ($25.7 billion non-GAAP) for profits of $5.0 billion ($6.3bn non-GAAP), beating estimates.

The Surface division was one of the highlights of Microsoft's most recent quarter. While it's still far from the company's largest business, revenue from Surface devices grew 29 percent year on year to $1.35 billion on the back of good Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book sales.

On the flip side, Microsoft's phone division is tanking. The company only managed to sell 4.5 million Lumias in the last quarter, with revenues down 49 percent year on year. Part of this can be attributed to a lack of compelling device launches in 2015, and a change of strategy revolving around Windows 10 Mobile.

The star of the show for Microsoft was its cloud business. Azure revenues are up 140 percent in constant currency, with the entire server division growing by 10 percent. Office 365 is also doing well, with subscribers now topping 20.6 million with revenue growth of 70 percent in constant currency.

The "More Personal Computing" division saw revenues decline by five percent, due partly to declines of five percent in the Windows OEM division, which Microsoft say has "outperformed the PC market".

News of Microsoft's strong Q2 results led to an spike in their share price during after hours trading, although CEO Satya Nadella hasn't provided forward guidance just yet.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/63640-microsoft-surface-division-grows-strong-q2.html

 

[treeski]

I have to say, each year since the Surface's release, it has gotten harder and harder not to pull the trigger and buy one. Looking forward to seeing what the 5th gen Surface Pro brings to the table.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I've been saying this all along. Their Surface tablets seem to be just the ticket but as far as their mobile phones go?.. Maybe they should just throw in the towel, it doesn't look like they'll be anything more than just bit players making up the numbers.

 

[Uncle Al]

I have to say, each year since the Surface's release, it has gotten harder and harder not to pull the trigger and buy one. Looking forward to seeing what the 5th gen Surface Pro brings to the table.

Question: Does it's OS allow you to load other PC programs, like an older version of Office?

 

[treeski]

Question: Does it's OS allow you to load other PC programs, like an older version of Office?

Don't see why not. It does run full Windows, and not some mobile variety.

 

[Peter Farkas]

Question: Does it's OS allow you to load other PC programs, like an older version of Office?

Don't see why not. It does run full Windows, and not some mobile variety.

exactly. it runs the same Windows 10 as your desktop. So the answer is yes, it runs all the crap your desktop does.

 

[15Eos]

I have to say, each year since the Surface's release, it has gotten harder and harder not to pull the trigger and buy one. Looking forward to seeing what the 5th gen Surface Pro brings to the table.

Question: Does it's OS allow you to load other PC programs, like an older version of Office?

I pulled the trigger a few weeks ago and bought a Surface Pro 3. I loaded MS Office 10 and it works great. Although it seems like it's mostly a tablet, it is really a laptop that looks like a tablet. And the pen is awesome. You can use it in MS word, and write in a word doc and it will convert your writing to type.