Microsoft Clarifies Its Surface Hub Sales Numbers
- Paul Thurrott
- Dec 13, 2016
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14
Yesterday, Microsoft noted that it had shipped Surface Hubs to over 2,000 customers in 24 markets, with an average deal size of approximately 50 units. After outsiders like myself started fumbling around with the math, the firm provided a clearer view of what’s happening.
It’s still good news. Really good news, given how expensive these devices are. But for sake of clarity, let’s takes a look at what changed.
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Yesterday, Microsoft’s Brian Hall posted the following:
In only nine months since our launch, we’ve shipped Surface Hubs to over 2,000 customers in 24 markets. The average deal size is approximately 50 units, but we’ve seen orders as large as 1,500 units to a large car manufacturer.
Microsoft has since updated the post to the following:
By the end of 2016, nine months since our launch, we will have shipped Surface Hubs to over 2,000 customers in 24 markets. The average deal size we see in the pipeline is approximately 50 units, but we’ve seen orders as large as 1,500 units to a large car manufacturer.
OK, so two changes, both minor:
We’re still talking about a nine-month selling period. The first change is subtle: The original blog post suggested that Microsoft had already shipped whatever number of units, but the change reveals that whatever number of units will ship by the end of the year. That’s just two weeks away, so no harm no foul.
“In the pipeline.” In speaking with Microsoft PR last night, I learned that the “average deal size of 50 units” bit was for orders, not sales. That is, Microsoft never had the stock available to ship 50 Surface Hubs to those average customers. It received orders for 50 units, and then began doling them out in allotments (of, say, 10 each). So by this time, it has not actually registered actual sales of 50 units, on average. It has registered orders of 50 units, on average. And has delivered some number to each. This is likewise a subtle change, in this case of the accounting kind. Again, no big deal.
Microsoft has noted that it changed the original blog post “to clarify Surface Hub demand data,” which is the right thing to do.
Nothing to see here, folks. Surface Hub is off to a great start.
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<p>LOL…this reminds of the time when Sony boasted how many PS4 were sold and Microsoft came back with the number of Xbox One’s shipped.</p>
<p>NOW, we are being told that "Surprise: Surface Hub is a huge success (literally)" and it’s kinda like the same deal with Xbox One, shipped and not sold. This advancement of a false narrative (IMO) is not healthy, especially when there is a consistency of confusion when analyzing facts.</p>
<p>Again, this is all coming from Brian Hall and his words need to be taken with a grain of salt.</p>