Contact: Scott Denne
Record tablet sales helped Microsoft beat revenue expectations by more than $1bn last quarter. Redmond reported $908m in sales from its Surface tablet devices in the quarter – twice the tally of the previous quarter and the same quarter a year ago. The momentum looks set to continue.
According to an August survey by ChangeWave Research, a service of 451 Research, 20% of consumers looking to buy a tablet in the next quarter planned to purchase one built by Microsoft. Among corporate IT departments, Microsoft commanded the same 20% of respondents, putting it in second place behind Apple in both surveys.
The results of Microsoft’s efforts in smartphones have been tepid, but it’s essentially the only vendor growing market share in the tablet business. The company gained the most ground in our consumer survey, nearly doubling the positive responses from 11% in the same survey a quarter earlier. Both Apple and Samsung lost ground in the consumer and corporate surveys.