Microsoft, Apple tablets have most profit margins

In this Friday, Oct. 26, 2012, file photo, Microsoft store product advisor Stuart Pitts displays the new Surface tablet computer as customers enter the store as it opened in Seattle. The Surface is Microsoft’s first attempt at a general-purpose computer. In the past, it made the software and left it to other companies to make the machines. But to catch the tablet wave led by Apple’s iPad, Microsoft felt it needed to make its own device. AP FILE PHOTO

LOS ANGELES – Research firm IHS said Microsoft and Apple are garnering the highest profit margins for their tablets, followed to a lesser extent by Google and then Amazon.

Microsoft Corp.’s first self-made tablet, the Surface, costs about $267 in parts and labor when excluding its optional keyboard cover. It went on sale Oct. 26 priced at $499, for a profit margin of around 46 percent. Surface comes with a 10.6-inch (26.9-centimeter) screen measured diagonally, and can access the Internet only through Wi-Fi. The price is for its base model with 32 gigabytes of memory.

With a similar configuration, the Surface bakes in more profit for Microsoft than Apple Inc. did when it released its third-generation iPad in March.