Surface tablets brought in $400M for Microsoft last quarter

While Microsoft’s Surface tablets aren’t quite a smashing success yet, they’re at least bringing in revenue now.

Surface revenues reached $400 million for the first quarter of 2014, Microsoft reported today in its latest earnings report. That’s a far cry from the $900 million write-off Microsoft was forced to take back in July over unsold Surface RT inventory.

It’s not a huge surprise that the Surface finally began to sell last quarter, though: Microsoft discounted the Surface RT by $150 back in July, bringing it to $350, and it also took $100 off the Surface Pro’s price in August. Those discounts, combined with steady improvements in Windows RT since the Surface launched, made the hybrid tablets far more compelling than in past quarters.

While Microsoft isn’t offering any specific figures, it says that it sold “more than double” the Surface units it sold in the prior quarter. During its earnings call today, Microsoft noted that the 32 gigabyte Surface RT sold best among retail and education customers.

Microsoft officially unveiled the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 last month, which are cheaper and far speedier than their predecessors and should hopefully lead to better Surface sales this quarter.