14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s Surface business is growing with every new quarter, and new figures show that 2015 was quite a successful year for the device, which received an overhaul in October.
Citing “Taiwan-based supply chain makers,” Digitimes reports that Microsoft sold a total of 6 million Surface tablets last year, which is Redmond’s personal best since the debut of the device in 2012.
Microsoft itself confirmed in the last financial earnings report that Surface revenues grew 29 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of fiscal year 2016, with the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book becoming the main catalysts for the growth.
This year, however, this growth is expected to continue, and the aforementioned source claims that a 30 percent increase is likely to be experienced, so Surface shipments could reach 8 million units by December 31.
New Surface models coming later this year
Microsoft launched the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book laptop in October 2015 while sales of the two models started later the same month, so while they contributed to this record figure, they’re expected to significantly boost Surface shipments throughout this year.
At the same time, Microsoft is also expected to refresh the Surface lineup with new models, possibly Surface Pro 5 and Surface Book 2, but for the moment, there’s still no information on when these devices could arrive.
If the same schedule is maintained, the new models should see daylight in the fall, approximately one year after their predecessors, with significant hardware upgrades, improvements to the Surface Pen and other enhancements that should help them stay at the top of the continuously growing premium device market.
The first Surface model was launched in October and was powered by Windows RT, a tablet-oriented version of Windows 8 that in the meantime got discontinued because of the same problem as always: the lack of apps and adoption among OEMs.