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IIRC, Surface is one of the key reasons Microsoft did so well in the last quarter.

For Surface, Microsoft made $908m in sales, but spent $839m to make the devices. Compare that to last year, when they sold $2.13b worth of Surface devices but spent $2.87b to make them.[1]

I wouldn't say it's a key profit area for them yet, and we also can't call it a success yet (as they haven't reported the total retail purchases).

[1] http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/10/24/a-win-for-microsofts-...

You mean revenue wise? Is it anything more than a rounding error? (Serious question.)

According to http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/10/27/mic..., they sold $908 million in Surfaces, out of 2.45 billion total hardware sales (including Xbox), last quarter. Total revenue last quarter for Microsoft was 23.20 billion.

So, Surface won't be replacing Windows/Office any time soon, but nearly a billion in revenue for what a lot of people try to frame as a failed product is not too shabby.

Wow, that is very eye opening, thanks!

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