Microsoft's Q4 2016 Earnings: Microsoft Surface revenue up 9%

Today, Microsoft released the company’s earnings report for Q4 2016 (Fiscal Year), and while most readers enjoy cooing over the Lumia phone sales or cloud storage stats, the Surface is pretty much deserving of its own breakout post in light of continued positive performance.

Microsoft highlights a small increase in revenue driven by the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book devices. Its worth noting that Microsoft Surface unit is now exclusively high-end with the Surface 3 becoming increasingly hard to find and going out stores later this year, making its performance quite remarkable – especially in comparison to other OEMs.

Here’s what Microsoft has to say about the Surface in its press release:

Surface revenue increased 9% (up 9% in constant currency) driven by Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book

Devices revenue decreased $782 million or 35%, mainly due to lower revenue from phones, driven by the change in strategy for the phone business, offset in part by higher Surface revenue. Phone revenue decreased $870 million or 71%, driven by a reduction in volume of phones sold. Surface revenue increased $76 million or 9%, primarily driven by the release of Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book in the second quarter of fiscal year 2016, offset in part by a decline in revenue from Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3.

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book devices are powerful premium ultra-portable that reflect the potential of Windows 10 in the modern age, it’s no wonder the firm continues to find relative success in the premium niche it has managed to carve ut for itself.

While Microsoft’s phone business is pretty much a wash as always, it would be intriguing to see how much Microsoft’s Surface revenue would rise with a fuller – and newer portfolio of devices.