Despite Selling 1.6 Million Surface Devices, Apple Takes Lead in Hybrid Product Market

When it comes to the sales figure, Apple’s iPad Pro has surpassed Microsoft’s Surface devices. Apple has sold around two million iPad Pro units so far whereas Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 and other devices in the Surface lineup saw about 1.6 million inventory moving.

Marketing research firm IDC published new data on Monday, in which it didn’t see Microsoft’s Surface hybrid devices performing as good as Apple’s iPad Pro. The firm said that Microsoft sold about 1.6 million units of Surface devices. The devices include the Surface Pro 4, which the company launched last year, Surface 3, Surface Pro 3, and other Surface two-in-one tablets. It’s worth noting that there’s no word on the Surface Book, Microsoft’s first laptop that can also be used as a tablet.

“One of the biggest reasons why detachables are growing so fast is because end users are seeing those devices as PC replacements,” said Jean Philippe Bouchard, Research Director, Tablets at IDC. “We believe Apple sold just over two million iPad Pros while Microsoft sold around 1.6 million Surface devices, a majority of which were Surface Pro and not the more affordable Surface 3. With these results, it’s clear that price is not the most important feature considered when acquiring a detachable – performance is.”

It is worth pointing out that despite Microsoft failing to beat Apple on the sales figures, the company has done pretty well in terms of the numbers of Surface devices it sold. While Microsoft has never revealed how many Surface Pro 3 it sold, according to estimations (which were based on the revenue the company garnered over the years through its Surface devices), Microsoft had sold more than one million units of Surface Pro 3 and other as of last year.