Microsoft writes down US$900m of Surface RTs

(Credit: Microsoft)

If Microsoft's recent price cut of its Surface RT tablets wasn't a sign of poor demand, the company, in its Q4 earnings call, has a US$900 million write-down for the slates, accessories and parts.
Part of the blame can be attributed to the lack of apps -- ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley reports that only 100,000 or so are found on the Windows Store, and there are "few, if any, killer Windows Store apps that might push someone to choose the Surface RT over an iPad or an Android tablet".
She further adds that Microsoft could be sitting on as much as 6 million unsold Surface RTs.
Microsoft, on its part, has said that despite the write-down, it has no plans to stop work on Windows RT and Surface RT. New accessories and an update for the tablet are expected to arrive in 2014, perhaps with a faster ARM processor that would help improve performance.