There was never going to be any good news in the latest figures filed by Microsoft and one area in particular, that is more than struggling, is the whole of the smartphone and tablet devision. This includes the hardware itself and the operating system.
The Windows 8 Phone mobile operating system leaves a lot to be desired when compared to Apple iOS and Google Android operating systems. It is clunky and you feel a bit childish pressing the coloured boxes, that are the key to navigation the system. It has not been well received and show no signs of any imminent improvement.
Then there is the Microsoft Surface tablets, that run the Windows 8 Phone operating system as well. The enthusiasm and demand for the Surface RT was so low that the company took a $900 million inventory charge against it. The new filings do not specify how many of the devices Microsoft have sold but estimates are around the 1.5 million mark, which is a drop in the ocean compared to the competition.
These numbers are just going to get worse for Microsoft in the Surface RT department as the device has also been marked down in price by $150 of more.
Just to round off this, there is also the matter of another cost of $898 million that Microsoft spent on the marketing of the Surface RT and Windows 8.
Microsoft did somehow manage to report a rise in overall revenue for the year, the numbers would however have been better without Surface.
