Analyst Cuts Microsoft Surface Sales Projections For Fiscal Q2

We're hearing more bad news for Microsoft's Surface RT tablet today, as one analyst at UBS AG has cut his sales projection for the company's fiscal Q2 in half. Brent Thill now says that Microsoft only managed to sell 1 million tablets during the quarter, which wrapped up in January. This isn't the first doom and gloom story we've heard about Surface RT, and it isn't likely to be the last.

Of course, if Surface sales came in under expectations, that also means Microsoft's earnings for the quarter will suffer as well. We don't know what those earnings are yet, but Microsoft should be revealing them at least relatively soon now that we're halfway into January. In any case, Thill cut his earnings per share projection for the quarter by 8 cents, which brings it down to 75 cents per share – not the biggest of losses to have to sustain, but one we doubt investors will be pleased with anyway.

So, if Surface RT really is disappointing like so many whispers are saying, then it'll be up to Surface Pro to wow the tablet crowd. Surface Pro is easily the more desirable of the two tables (despite its higher price tag), and luckily for us, the company announced this morning that the first Surface Pro tablets were rolling off the production line. Microsoft is intending to launch Surface Pro sometime later this month, but with only two weeks left before February arrives, we still don't have a release date to speak of.

Then again, there may not be anything to these rumors and speculation about Surface RT. Microsoft recently announced that it was ramping up Surface RT production and would be putting the tablet in more retail stores besides its own, so that could mean that sales are within expectations. We'll have to wait until Microsoft makes an announcement on the matter before we find out how Surface is really doing, so stay tuned.

[via Bloomberg]