Microsoft has admitted it has "to do better" after the company revealed it had been forced to write down $900 million in unsold Surface RT inventory.
The troubled tablet which serves as the cheaper alternative to the more popular, Windows 8-equipped Surface Pro has failed to take off commercially, with its price cut at retail as a result.
Indeed, speaking in a earnings call following the release of the firm's quarterly results, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood noted that reducing the Surface RT's RRP may well "accelerate adoption" of the device, despite its apparent unpopularity.
It isn't all bad news for Microsoft, however.
An uptake in Windows Phone adoption thanks in no small part to Nokia helped Microsoft's device and service division grow by $134 million, and - as Hood noted in the call the firm as a whole "closed out the year with record on our revenue up $22.4 billion."
Slow transition
Essentially, while Microsoft's business remains perfectly comfortable, it's Hood's assessment that the transition of consumers from Windows 7 to Windows 8 is slower than the firm expected in part due to the rise of the smartphone.
"This quarter our Windows business declined as the device market continued to evolve beyond the traditional PC," added Hood.
"We are working to transition the business into this modern era of computing taking advantage of the new scenarios enabled by Windows 8. As we said before, given the complexity of the ecosystem this journey will take but we continue to make incremental progress."
However, while the poor performance of BlackBerry's PlayBook has resulted in the Canadian firm abandoning the sector altogether, Microsoft believes it still has something to prove.
"We are working hard with our partners to gain share in the evolving and growing device markets," concluded Hood.
"I want to be very clear, we know we have to do better and that's one reason we made a strategic and organisational changes we made last week."
[source: Seeking Alpha]
News
What do you call someone who has an unhealthy obsession with video games and Sean Bean? That'd be a 'Chris Kerr'. Chris is one of those deluded souls who actually believes that one day Sean Bean will survive a movie. Poor guy.
Top Stories
Feature
May 20th, 2024
Hot Five: AppLovin revenue surges 48% Y/Y, Plarium and Big Fish up for sale, and a look inside Merge Mansion's growth
Feature
May 20th, 2024
55 top mobile games in soft launch: Squad Busters, Battle Guys: Royale, Plants vs. Zombies 3, LEGO Hill Climb Adventures, and more
Events
Digital Dragons | Europe | May 19th |
GamesBeat Summit 2024 | North America | May 20th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Nordic Game Spring 2024 | Nordic | May 21st |
Impact 2024 - Indie Games | May 23rd | |
MomoCon 2024 | North America | May 24th |
Morocco Gaming Expo | Africa | May 24th |
For The Win 2024 | Europe | May 29th |
Popular Stories
Feature
May 20th, 2024
55 top mobile games in soft launch: Squad Busters, Battle Guys: Royale, Plants vs. Zombies 3, LEGO Hill Climb Adventures, and more
Interview
May 15th, 2024