Microsoft’s entrance into the tablet market was hyped up beyond belief and with all the promotional material they had, Microsoft really set everyone’s expectations high. However, since the launch everything about the Surface has more or less been negative and the Surface tablets have been criticised for their poor “fixability”, high price tags, lack of storage space and Windows 8 RT for its relatively pointless existence.
All that said Microsoft still expected sales to be pretty good and according to the latest figures their optimism was clearly misplaced. Since the launch Microsoft has manage to shift only 1.5 million Surface devices, this combines both Surface RT and Surface Pro figures. The Microsoft Surface Pro sold only 400,000 units due to its very high price point while the Surface RT did better selling about one million units. Microsoft’s expectations had suggested it would sell 2 million Surface RT tablets in December alone, yet they have only sold half that number in nearly 5 months and by those numbers alone you’d think that this whole venture has been an abysmal failure. Having ordered around 3 million Surface RT tablets, Microsoft still has a tonne of stock left to shift.
So where have the problems come from then? Well it seems obvious that the high retail prices of both Surface devices have been a thorn in the side. Given the proximity of the Surface pricing to established tablet brands and products already on the market people weren’t willing to try something new and weren’t happy to put their money on the table when it came to buying the Microsoft Surface. Critics have also laid into the Windows RT operating system, questioning its existence. With Intel continuing to push x86 based SoCs and processors as viable tablet options with the Windows 8 OS, it seems pointless to get involved with Windows RT because Android and iOS offer much better and more developed options if you aren’t using x86. Therefore, Windows RT finds itself stuck between x86 Windows 8 based tablets and ARM Android and iOS based tablets.
Microsoft has the resources, the know-how and the potential to turn this round but it will probably require some serious price cuts. Why do you think Microsoft’s Surface has failed to sell well? Has the price deterred you from buying one? Are Android and iOS based tablets just too strong for the Surface to deal with? Let us know what you think!
I have the Surface RT and love it. I do believe at times the reviewers like to engage in hair splitting until you need a microscope to see the miniscule flaw they may be referring to. I have owned an iPad, iPhone and at least 4or 5 iPods (in my opinion, one of the most over rated poorly assembled pieces of garbage) and throughout this relentless attempt on my part to become part of the ” cool crowd sporting the apple on the back of my VW Beetle, you know the one with the bumper sticker that has a glorious picture of earth and the words love your mother placed strategically over the exhaust pipe…but it was not to be. I had to come to grips with reality…I actually had work to do, spreadsheets, power point presentations an yes, even word documents. While I applaud Apple bring the touch screen of age, I am a worker that has to do all the things a working individual does and Apple has paved the way nicely for me to be typing this on a touch screen enabled PC device, and I thank you for that.
Now the really neat part of what my non-apple device has and encourages…freedom, yup freedom right here in America, or better yet from the far flung corners of the earth…freedom to develop apps, freedom to select from an open platform a plethora of apps, apps that may have been developed and marketed by a fifteen year old kid, or a business man on his lunch and then they had the freedom to upload it to an open platform for all to see and use if so inclined. I applaud Apple for all of the ground breaking developments they have brought to the market over the years, but they should feel a bit disgraced by trapping you into everything Apple…through the use of the insidious I-Tunes Store…it kind of reminds me of the Gitmo of owning anything Apple…It’s their way or they will rendition you to foreign courts and try to break you financially, after all they have wealth greater than the nation they were founded in, yup just before they shipped the manufacturing, parts, logistics, mom and pop shops that inevitably pop up around any manufacturing facility. Apple…A GREAT AMERICAN DREAM, BROUGHT TO THE MARKET BY PROUD AMERICAN WORKERS…(at least for a little while)…ONE THE MOST WELL MANAGED HEAVYWEIGHT EMPLOYERS IN THE WORLD…(well China)…KEEP ON BUYING THE HYPE, THE IPHONE, THE IPAD, THE NEXT GREATEST THING APPLE RELEASES…BUT REMEMBER THE DEVICE YOU ARE BUYING WAS BUILT NY A SHIFT WORKER WHO WORKS 12 ON AND 12 OFF. THE CONDITIONS ARE SUCH THAT THEY HAD TO RIG UP SUICIDE NETS BECAUSE SO MANY CHINESE WORKERS WERE ATTEMPTING TO KILL THEMSELVES BECAUSED THEY MISSED THEIR QUOTA FOR THE DAY…SO I SAY PLUG THOS HEADPHONES IN AND LISTEN REAL HARD…YOU MIGHT JUST HEAR A CRY FOR HELP IN ALANGUAGE YOU CAN’T UNDERSTAND…BUT YOU’LL KNOW IT WHEN YOU HEAR IT, AND MAY HAUNT YOU FOR EVER….