Now That's a Flop

How badly did the Microsoft Surface flop? This badly:

According to the report, Microsoft’s total Surface revenue for all of fiscal 2013 amounted to just $853m. That’s nearly $50m less than the $900m charge Redmond took when it discounted its remaining Surface RT inventory by $150 per box.

And that’s not all. That $900m writedown was related to Surface RT only, but the $853m revenue figure includes sales of Surface RT and Surface Pro combined.[Emphasis in original.]

If we assume an average selling price of $600 — which may be low given that the $100 keyboard accessory really isn’t optional — then Redmond sold fewer than 1.5 million tablets, RT and Pro, since last year’s launch.

Apple sold twice that many iPads in just 80 days after launch in 2010. And that was their slowest-selling first-generation model.

Ballmer needs to call do-over and start from scratch.