Surface Tension: The effect of Surface on Windows revenues

According to Strategy Analytics 3 million Windows-based tablets shipped in Q1. That is not inconsequential. It would add 4% to the total Windows-based computers and reduce the decline in Windows PC growth to -8% (from -11%). You can see the effect of those units on share in the following graphs.

Note the “boundary layer” of pale blue Macs between the brown-hued Windows and the green-hued tablets.

Including tablets of all kinds, here is the market share growth in Windows PCs.

As the post-PC disruption evolves, Microsoft has made an effort to shift its business model. I discussed this some time ago and there remain quite a few questions about the sustainability of the strategy.

However, there might already be evidence that it’s working. The clue is in the growth in Windows revenues at a time when PC shipments (at least traditional ones) are declining rapidly. Some of that might be due to deferrals and software assurance revenues which are insensitive to shipments. However some have to be due to the Surface.

Remember that Surface launched with an RT version priced starting at $499 (which did not sell well) but received a boost in Q1 with the Pro version priced at $899 to $999. If we assume a 80:20 mix of Pro to RT and an average price of $950 for the Pro and $550 for RT, 3 million units would generate at least $2.5 billion in gross revenues. Accounting for retail margins of 20%, Microsoft could still be recognizing $2 billion in revenues. That’s a significant portion of $5.7 billion in Windows revenue.

We can back into this figure from another direction: Prior to Surface launch, the Windows revenue per PC shipped (combining Microsoft’s revenues and Gartner’s estimates) was about $50. After the Surface Pro shipped the revenue climbed to $73/PC.

Assuming the same pre-Surface revenue/PC and given the shipment figures for Q1 we would get about $3.7 billion for Windows. The difference to actual revenues is about $2 billion.

So the extrapolation of Windows royalties approach yields $2 billion in Surface sales and the Price x Units estimate also yields $ 2billion. It would suggest that Surface has had a significant impact already: More than a third of Windows revenues depend on it.

[UPDATE: I’ve been informed that not all the Windows tablet sales reported by Strategy Analytics are Surface products. As many as 1 million might not be. That would reduce the revenues as calculated to about $1.4 billion. In addition, not all Windows revenues are current with much of that deferred. Actual revenues were $4.6 billion. With both of these adjustments considered, the impact of Surface might be only 30%.)