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" Microsoft has revealed sales figures for its Surface line, confirming that the tablet range brought in $853 million (\u00A3562m) during its first eight months on the market. The number suggests that the company could struggle to turn a profit on the device, with write-downs of the Windows RT version of the product totalling $900 million (\u00A3591m).  Marketing expenditure also increased significantly in Microsoft&amp;#039;s Windows division as a release of the launch of Surface and the latest version of the operating system, with outgoings up by $843 million (\u00A3556m) year-on-year. The news follows confirmation of a significant price reduction to the Windows RT-powered Surface, which recently had \u00A3120 shaved off its cost in the UK. Market analyst IDC estimates that Surface tablets sold less than a million during the first quarter of 2013, with the Windows 8-based Surface Pro model accounting for much of this figure. Figures from Strategy Analytics suggest that Windows products accounted for 4.5% of all tablet shipments during the last fiscal quarter. Watch Digital Spy&amp;#039;s review of the Surface Pro below:      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/tablets/news/a502989/microsoft-surface-sales-figures-suggest-device-may-be-a-flop/>